The outgoing John Mahama-led administration will Wednesday morning present its handing over notes containing details about the state of the nation to the incoming New Patriotic Party (NPP) government.
The Transition Team, jointly inaugurated by President Mahama and president-elect, Nana Akufo-Addo, is expected to sit for six weeks from Wednesday.
The meeting will afford the incoming government the opportunity to enquire about matters of national interest from the Mahama administration.
The transition team will meet at 10 a.m. Wednesday at the International Conference Centre to set up the Transitional Committee comprising those of the incoming and outgoing teams.
There would also be the transitional sub-committee on finance, energy, infrastructure, social services, the presidency, etc, presenting their handing over notes to representatives of the incoming administration.
The spokesperson for president-elect Nana Akufo-Addo, Mustapha Hamid, said Tuesday once his team gets the notes they would scrutinise it and ask further questions for clarity as this would be the basis for proceeding on anything.
“Certainly there would be questions that we would need clarifications on, and those questions would be the basis for meetings…we already have a lot of information from various ministries and government agencies and we hope that the notes that we would be given would be consistent with some of the things that we know. Where there are inconsistencies we would ask questions,” he said.
Mr Hamid does not expect any hiccups past transitions have experienced if the teams work with honesty, openness and transparency as said Nana Akufo-Addo said.
He stressed that past traditions did not have a law governing them, unlike the current system where there is a law governing the process adding he has “no doubt this would be arguably the smoothest transition process we are likely to have.”
By the provisions of the Presidential Transition Act 2012 (Act 845), the transition team is to make comprehensive practical arrangements to regulate the transfer of political power following a presidential election and to do this by forming various sub-committees that will be responsible for different aspects of the process of the transfer of power.
The law provides for the establishment of three specific committees – the inauguration sub-committee, the government machinery sub-committee and the presidency sub-committee and any other committees the transition team considers relevant for the performance of its functions.
Spokesperson for the outgoing government’s transition team, Hanna Tetteh, said she was hopeful that Wednesday’s will agree on the committees to be established and the composition of each committee so that the various committees can begin their work and get on with the process of planning the inauguration ceremony, handing over the machinery of the Civil Service including the Ministries, Departments and Agencies, and ensuring the orderly transfer of the official assets and liabilities to the in-coming administration.
“We envisage that the process of transition will be completed before the formal handing over to the incoming administration on the 7th of January 2017, however, if there are any matters that still need to be addressed the members of the Government’s transition team will be available for further discussions,” she said in a statement.
Source: myjoyonline
