Political Scientist Dr. Kwame Asah Asante has welcomed the newly launched Code of Conduct for political appointees by President John Dramani Mahama, describing it as a crucial move to bring sanity and accountability into public service.
However, he believes the code could go further in addressing the misuse of state resources, particularly official vehicles.
Speaking on Morning Starr with Naa Dedei Tettey, Dr. Asante applauded the directive regulating ministerial travel, saying it will help curb unnecessary expenditure and bring order to public officials’ movements.
“Ministerial travel regulation is good because we are going to see a situation where nobody just leaves the country without express permission of the state or without the state knowing about it and that is going to regulate that.
“Remember, we spend a lot of money in the travels. So this will contain some of the unnecessary travels and expenditure,” he said.
While acknowledging this progress, Dr. Asante stressed the need to tackle other long-standing inefficiencies, particularly in the management of government vehicles. He called for an end to the routine abuse of state cars, which are often used for personal errands and social events.
“What I would have loved to see is that we should have also included something that will ensure that public vehicles are not abused. Where people use it for market, to run around town and funerals and all that, it should be a thing of the past,” he stated.
Dr. Asante also urged a shift away from the entrenched practice of purchasing new vehicles for every new appointee, despite the availability of existing government vehicles.
“And that’s also, we want to see a revolution in that direction, especially where people just abuse state vehicles and all that. And then we should also depart from that, you know, habit of the state always buying vehicles.
“Meanwhile, there are a pool of cars there that ministers and other appointees can use, but there is always the need to buy fresh cruisers for a minister or his deputy and the rest of them.
“We have to think about this because it costs them a lot of money. And I would love to see a situation where there is the code reflect that problem that I’m talking about,” he added.
