Renowned heart surgeon Professor Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng has revealed that he was dismissed as head of the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) in a strange way in 2009 when the National Democratic Congress (NDC) took over power.
He said he had been in office then for only a year. “I was dismissed on radio,” he stated.
“It was not right but…” he lamented.
Prof Frimpong-Boateng expressed these lamentations on Thursday, February 2 when he faced Parliament’s Appointments Committee.
He was being vetted for the ministerial position of Science, Technology and Innovation.
Assessing his curriculum vitae, Member of Parliament for Bodi Samson Ahi wanted to know if he had worked at PURC as stated.
The architect of Ghana’s foremost cardiothoracic center said he was at the Commission in the final year of the tenure of Former President John Agyekum Kufuor but was not happy with the way he was relieved of his position.
He explained that as a head of a commission, he had expected due process to have been followed in relieving him of his position and not for the new government then to go on radio to announce his dismissal.
On the position he has been nominated by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo for, Prof Frimpong-Boateng, who has been the President of Ghana Heart Foundation since 1989, said the country has to take vigorous steps to bridge the technology gap.
“The poverty gap is really a technology gap. If we bridge the technology gap we may be on our way to solving our poverty situation,” he suggested.
He added that the science and technology value chain is so wide that the country must sponsor more scientists in order to grow every aspect of the sector.
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