I operated Railways Ministry for 6 months without office, adequate staff – Joe Ghartey

Former Railways Development Minister Joe Ghartey has revealed that although Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo gave him a Ministerial position, he did not have an office for six months of his four-year tenure.

According to him, his office was supposed to engage in a multimillion-dollar project of fixing the abandoned railway system in Ghana but he had to be working from his office in Parliament.

Joe Ghartey who is one of the leading contenders for the flagbearership race of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) made this known when he spoke to Accra-based Kessben FM in an interview monitored by MyNewsGh.com.

He said “what gives me the most joy is that the current Minister has said it publicly and has told me privately that he didn’t know that we have done a lot of work because when he went to the Ministry he has seen the work we’ve done. I remember he used to ask why I’m bringing all these to the cabinet then I will tell him that it’s a million-dollar business so I’ve to pass everything to through cabinet.

When I went to the Ministry there was nothing there. If I say there was nothing there what I mean is that we didn’t even have an office for six months. For six months I was operating out of Parliament as a Minister of the Republic… We started with nobody and I had to get some workers from my wife’s office. After some time, we were given a Chief Director by the Civil Service Department. All we had was a map, a big dream and nothing. I was using my own car.

When you are given a position, you have a choice to do it or not to do it. There is a saying that when the going gets tough, the tough get going. When I was given the Railways job, what came to my mind was a murder case Nana gave me when I was a young Lawyer. Although I lost the case, he told me bad cases make good lawyers and I learnt a lot from that,” he said.