Employment and Labour Relations Minister, Dr Rashid Pelpuo, has accused the previous NPP administration of burdening the new government with thousands of unplanned recruitments made in the final days of their tenure.
Speaking on JoyNews’ PM Express, Dr Pelpuo described the situation as a politically motivated move that left the incoming administration scrambling to address unpaid salaries and administrative gaps.
“This tells the story of what complaints we had when we assumed office,” he said. “At the point of exit of the NPP government, they imposed on us 12,000 new workers that they did not prepare to pay. They didn’t have the money to pay them, but they employed them. And then they exited.”
He explained that the budgetary handover did not include provisions for these new employees, leaving the new government in a difficult position from the onset.
“The three-month budgets which they had to prepare for, as we take over, didn’t take into consideration any of these. And so we came into office with no preparations to pay anybody,” he noted.
Dr Pelpuo further revealed that most of the newly recruited workers lacked the necessary clearance, yet were added to the payroll just before the change in government.
“All the people they had just newly employed did not have enough clearance, but they imposed them on the government, and then they left,” he stated.
He argued that the decision to employ such a large number of workers without financial planning was driven more by electoral strategy than genuine governance.
“It shows that there had not been preparation,” he explained. “They had been preparing to contest elections. Everything that would give them a good image from the side of the young person who is unemployed and looking for a job is what they would do.”
