The National Lottery Authority (NLA) Union is urging the President to appoint a Director-General ready and capable of addressing the present challenges being faced by the Authority.

“We expect a listening Director-General to be appointed. We expected the Director-General to come and hit the ground running.

“To the incoming Director whom we do not know yet, we expect that when he/she comes, will listen to stakeholders, staff and management. That is our expectation,” Mr Tamakloe said.

President Akufo-Addo on Thursday directed Kofi Osei Ameyaw, now former Director-General of the NLA to retire.

The reason given by the President is that the one year contract given to the former NPP MP for Asuogyaman expired on February 20, 2021.

“Upon reaching the compulsory retirement age of 60 years on February 2020, the President of the Republic, by letter dated September 3, 2020, under my hand, granted you a one-year contract of service as Director-General of the National Lottery Authority,” the letter stated.

Chairman of the NLA Union, Eric Tamakloe, speaking with Evans Mensah on Top Story today described the state of the Authority as a “struggling” one.

He disclosed that for the past four years, the supply of lottery paper rolls has been a challenge.

“We are struggling for things that we shouldn’t even be struggling for particularly, issues bordering on the supply of paper roll. Paper rolls are primary documents that we go and stake lotto. They will give you a print out which will show clearly that the numbers you have staked, the amount you have staked,” he added.

He, therefore, emphasized the need for a new Director-General who according to him, “should listen to staff, stakeholders including the NMCs to get some of these problems resolved as soon as possible.”

“If it is an issue of procurement, we need to sit up, if it is an issue of supplier we need to sit up and have these issues addressed,” he concluded.

Meanwhile, Mr Tamakloe says he is pleased with President Akufo-Addo’s decision to retire Kofi Osei Ameyaw as Director-General.

“We thought that in the face of all this mismanagement and the dwindling fortune of NLA, we have to react quickly by petitioning the President not to again extend the contract of Mr Ameyaw.

“This is a big relief to me personally and the staff at large,” he stressed.

Finance Director of the NLA, Ernest Mortey has been appointed Acting Director-General to foresee the running of the Authority until a substantive Director is appointed.