The Ghanaian Voice, an Accra-based private paper, reports the condemnation by the former Vice President, Professor John Atta Mills, of the practice whereby the Kufuor administration has cultivated the habit of asking senior public servants to proceed on leave.

Prof. Mills said this at his first meeting with the media at the international Press Centre in Accra last week. The former Veep said that the NPP government has formed the habit of asking people who, in the performance of their duties, came in contact with people holding political office to go on leave when their time was not due.

He said some of those who were affected by such directives were heads of limited liability companies whose boards were sidestepped by President Kufuor's directives, adding that this practice could set precedents for successive governments to cause dismissals or re-appointments. He was of the view that consultations and national consensus were essential for solution of the country's economic problems.

The former Veep condemned the illegality in the appointment of certain people whose appointments were supposed, by Constitution provisions, to be appointed in consultation with the Council of State, a body yet to be constituted by the NPP government.