ISD workers petitions Mahama over Stan Dogbe

Information Services Department (ISD) workers have petitioned President John Dramani Mahama stating that their job has been taken over by Presidential staffer Stan Dogbe. In a petition signed on behalf of the concerned staff by Mr Yaw D. Mensah, the workers said their work on national events has stalled since the presidential staffer assumed his current position. “…since Stan Dogbe assumed his current position as a presidential staffer at the Office of the President, the work of ISD in relation to the national event has stalled. The core mandate has since been handled by Mr Dogbe ever since,” portions of the petition read. The petition by the ISD staff comes after the error-filled brochure used for the Ghana@59 Independence Day celebration caused a global shame to the West African nation. The error-prone brochure allegedly authored by ISD, referred to Kenya leader Uhuru Kenyatta as the President of Ghana, while describing the 59-year-old country as a “low income country” among other misrepresentations.

The ISD boss Francis Kwarteng Arthur has apologised for the gaffe and taken responsibility, but his subordinates are up in arms against his stance and calling for his removal. The petition by ISD staff added that they had no hand in the content or the production of the brochure and were shocked that their acting director accepted responsibility on their behalf.

The workers want President Mahama to remove their acting director, Mr Kwarteng Arthur with immediate effect. They allege in the petition that Mr Arthur’s style of administration since his appointment has been “autocratic” and that he had shown “gross disrespect” to both management and other staff members. They said ISD’s staff had over the years handled national events with competence to the pride of all and explained that if the department had been involved in the process of the production of the brochure, it would have served the government and the people of Ghana very well.