A former deputy Defense Minister under the Rawlings-led National Democratic Congress (NDC) government, Dr Tony Aidoo, has described the decision of former President Kufuor to increase public sector wages as populist and treacherous. Dr Aidoo who was speaking on Joy FM’s Super Morning Show said there was no justification why the former president took such an important decision in the very last hour of his tenure. “Even though we are in an era when we say that it is time for inter-party reconciliation…I think we must call a spade a spade. “This action of President Kufuor is highly unacceptable,” he told host Kojo Oppong Nkrumah. Within the last 12 hours of his tenure, Mr Kufuor took some decisions which have since come under a barrage of criticisms. The former President pardoned some 500 prisoners, including former Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) boss Tsatsu Tsikata, who was slapped with a five-year jail sentence on charges of causing financial loss to the state and misapplying public funds. Mr Kufuor also reinstated a former Police Director of Operations, ACP Kofi Boakye, who had been interdicted following a drug scandal he was accused of involvement. Perhaps what appeared to be the very last decision of the “gentle giant” was to increase public sector salaries between 16 and 32 percent. But in a reaction to the issues, Member of Parliament (MP) for Okaikoi North and a member of Mr Kufuor’s cabinet, Nana Akomea, justified the move. He said although the decisions had been taken far earlier, the announcement was delayed due to the elections. “It goes back to how the transition was structured; there was no time at all over the last one month for anybody to do any deliberate government policy formulation. “A lot of these decisions that had already been taken could not necessarily be processed into the public domain,” he stated. Meanwhile the President, Prof. John Evans Atta Mills is reported to have ordered all former District and Municipal Chief Executives to remain at post until they are told to do otherwise. According to presidential spokesperson Mahama Ayariga, the President has no intentions of sacking such officials, at least not in the immediate future. Story by Fiifi Koomson