NIA Board rejects petition to remove Prof Attafuah

The Governing Board of the National Identification Authority (NIA) has rejected the petition by the Public Services Workers Union, Trades Union Congress (TUC), demanding the removal of Executive Secretary Professor Kenneth Attafuah.

On July 1, nearly a thousand NIA staff members sent a petition to the President to demand the removal of the Executive Secretary.

The petition alleged that Professor Attafuah engaged in practices contrary to the labor laws and Human Resource Manual and Policy Framework for Ghana Public Services, violations of SSNIT law, poor corporate governance structure, and selective and administrative injustice in recruitment.

However, in a statement on July 5, the Governing Board said the workers’ complaint was not a true representation of the Executive Secretary’s dedication to the job. As such, the statement stressed that the petition was unwarranted.

“The Governing Board wishes to express its complete confidence in the Executive Secretary’s integrity, competence, experience and resourcefulness in the performance of his duties, including the advancement of the interests of NIA workers and roundly describes the petition as baseless and unwarranted,” portions of the release read.The statement also questioned why the staff had failed to use the appropriate channels to air their grievances and chose to directly petition the President.

“As stated by the National Labour Commission (NLC) at a hearing on Wednesday, 3rd July 2024 into ongoing negotiations between Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (MSC) and the Industrial and Commercial Workers’ Union (ICU), the NIA Division of the PSWU (NIA PSWU) has no right to petition His Excellency the President to remove the Executive Secretary without exhausting internal procedures; the NLC declared the conduct of the NIA PSWU as both “illegal and completely out of line,” the release added.

Meanwhile, the Board appealed to the staff to exercise a bit more faith in the leadership, as it was committed to ensuring that their concerns were addressed appropriately.