Dr Benjamin Anyagre Aziginaataeg, the Chief Executive Officer of Afro-Continental Union Consult, has suggested that government appointments must be based on a 10-month contract. Dr Aziginaataeg said the appointees' performance should then be subjected to a forensic performance appraisal before the renewal or otherwise of the contract. In an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA), Dr Aziginaataeg said this would help curb corrupt practices of government appointees who use their offices for their personal interests instead of seeking the interest of the state. He said 'appointees are given a maximum of a year-period contract to oversee the execution of a given national policy target on behalf of the president. A political appointee is to continue in office upon a forensic performance appraisal by an independent assessment body.' He added that corruption kills a nation and slowly halts the heartbeat of a national sovereign body; therefore, any political party assuming authority to govern should consider that government appointments are on a contract arrangement and could be removed at any time for the exhibition of poor leadership. He added that administrative duties should be strictly left in the hands of public and civil servants, stressing that ascension to the head of an institution of state such as the police, army, fire, prisons, and other public institutions should strictly be by hierarchical long service and merit with proven good conduct and obedience to the code of conduct of such an organisation. 'Appointment to such public institutions should cease to be by a government but the state. Such a good governance exhibition of rules shall drastically create an inbuilt cultural DNA to fight corruption and graft in the Republic,' he added. Dr Aziginaataeg said that people were jostling to be appointed into office through either the influence of money or other means instead of assisting to rule hinged on merit and competence. According to him, over the years there have been recorded cases of appointee s engaged in corrupt practices, indicating that their misgovernance conducts in office make a government unpopular with instances of governments voted out of office. 'What accounts for such misbehaviour in office are due to how they entered office, either through unmeritorious lobbying or by buying the office. 'In such circumstances, the persona views a position as a bought space and frowns on the rules and code of conduct to govern. They bend and disregard laid-down procedures to conduct government business within and without,' he noted. He called for the punishment of appointees who misuse their positions, saying that 'in countries like China, you dare misbehave caught in corruption. In South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, and parts of the world, long sentences are visited on culprits.' Source: Ghana News Agency