You can't separate Naana Opoku-Agyemang's ministerial and cabinet roles - Baako tells NDC

Veteran broadcaster Malik Kweku Baako has described as fallacious the NDC’s pose that Professor Jane Naana Opoku Agyemang had no hand in the cancellation of the Teacher Trainee allowance during the erstwhile Mahama administration.

His comment comes in reply to NDC’s communication officer, Sammy Gyamfi who claimed the cancellation of the Teacher Trainee allowance and the introduction of the three months salary payment for newly recruited teachers were all decisions made by government and not the Education Minister.

Sammy Gyamfi said, “Firstly, the claim that Prof. Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang canceled Teacher Trainee Allowance is false. The decision to replace Teacher Trainee allowance with student loan was a cabinet decision and not a ministerial decision.

“Secondly, the claim that Prof. Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang introduced the three (3) months’ salary payment for newly recruited teachers is false. This policy was introduced by the Finance Ministry as part of GIFMIS reforms at the time, to check the phenomenon of pay roll fraud and ensure that newly recruited teachers, nurses and doctors were paid their first three (3) months’ salary without any hindrance and subsequent salaries paid upon validation.”

However, Kweku Baako speaking on Joy News’ Newsfile Saturday said one can not divorce the Ministerial from cabinet, thus the NDC should desist from creating an excuse for their running mate.

“How are you trying to divorce the Ministerial from the cabinet? That’s a sign of weakness, that you don’t really have a solid case to sell.

“Because look, the Minister or the Ministry prepares a memo on such key issues, memo goes to cabinet, cabinet discusses it and then whatever they do there; changes or not changes is adopted as a government policy.

“So for somebody to come around and say that was a cabinet decision, not a ministerial one is peddling a fallacy.