The issues of the transferred governors of West Coast Region, LRR, CRR, URR, NBR, and their deputies, were taken to court by the UDP because they were never civil servants or senior civil servants prior to their appointments as governors. After realising that fact, the government of President Adama Barrow transferred them to become Deputy Permanent Secretaries at various ministries. In essence, these people were appointed civil servants over night and promoted to almost heads of civil service over night!

Does this government of Adama Barrow think that this country is Barrow Kunda or it is a country without laws. If not, what makes them think they can appoint anybody into the civil service and promote over night without following any lawful processes in place, to ensure competency and fairness to all.

Thus, how could they not have known that the transfer of this bunch of unqualified senior civil servants into the civil service of this country is in itself unlawful, and their promotions to the ranks of Deputy Permanent Secretaries over night are even worse? Their transfers to those posts were unlawful because they were never working lawfully at those levels in the civil service prior, and their promotions to those posts over night were unlawful as the current senior civil servants and Directors at various departments were bypassed for such promotions, without any justification or merit. For some of these new DPSs, only God knows their qualifications.

It seems this Barrow government is going rogue, as far as adherence to the laws and regulations and civil service codes is concerned.

By Yankuba Darboe, Chairman Brikama Area Council