The Supreme Court has dismissed the suit challenging the continuous stay in office of Chief Executive of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), Dr. KK Sarpong despite being above the retirement age of 60.
The court dismissed the case after the applicant, a Deputy Youth Organizer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Edem Agbana failed to pursue it after eight months of filing.
Mr. Agbana in 2019 sought an order directing Dr. Sarpong to resign immediately from his position as CEO of GNPC as he had attained the age of 65 which surpasses the legal age for retirement of public offices.
Mr. Agbana had prayed the court to force Dr. Sarpong to pay back all salaries, allowances and benefits he obtained from the GNPC after he crossed the retirement age.
He was also seeking for an order forcing Dr. Sarpong “to resign immediately from his position as CEO of Ghana National Petroleum Corporation.”
Mr. Agbana filed the suit in October 2019.
In February 2017, President Nana Akufo-Addo first appointed Dr Sarpong as Acting Chief Executive Officer of GNPC.
He replaced Alex Mould who had served as CEO since 2013.
Dr. Sarpong was among eight CEOs working for the State that were supposed to retire by March 2019 because they had hit the statutory retirement age.
They were reportedly directed to proceed on retirement by the Presidency.
What the law says
On the retirement age, Article 199 (3) and (4) states that:
“A public officer shall, except as otherwise provided in this Constitution, retire from the public service on attaining the age of sixty years.
“A public officer who has retired from the public service after attaining the age of sixty years may, where the exigencies of service require, be engaged for a time but not exceeding five years in all and upon such other terms and conditions as the appointing authority shall determine.”