Former Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Hon. Joe Ghartey has advised public sector lawyers to speak their mind and offer good faith legal advice during the negotiations, drafting and execution of State contracts.

He advised the gathering of government sector lawyers that if a political appointee or superior disagrees and seeks to have the lawyer render an opinion as desired by the appointee though legally unsound, the lawyer should resign rather than act according to the dictates of the politician.

Hon. Joe Ghartey offered the advice during the plenary session of the Conference of Public Sector Lawyers on Tuesday, 5th November, 2024. His advice formed part of his response to a question from the moderator of the session, the respected Prof. Kofi Abotsi, Dean of UPSA Law School. Prof. Abotsi sought to have the opinions of the panel on what a public sector lawyer is supposed to do when political influence is brought to bare on State Contracting and requests made on the lawyer inconsistent with prudent and sound legal advise..

Hon. Joe Ghartey in his straightforward response said the politician or political appointee is the client of a public sector lawyer, thus just as a private practitioner has the option of refusing to act on the instructions of a client and sacking a client, the public sector lawyer also has the option though of not sacking his or her client which is the State, but has the option of resigning rather than conforming to legally unsound demands of the political actor during contract negotiation and execution.

Kuffour Intervenes in his Resignation

In a voice showing his fidelity to the advise proffered, the learned former Attorney-General narrated a story of a point in time in his tenure as Attorney-General when he informed President Kuffour of his resignation owing to a disagreement over a State contract with another Minister of State. According to him, his legal advise as the State's Legal Advisor was unfavourable to the Minister but was greatly in the interest of the State.

According Mr. Ghartey, President Kuffour dissuaded him from the his intention and encouraged him to stay in office and act right by law. He thus suggested that as a legal professional providing legal service for the business of the State, the government lawyer is to hold high fidelity to the law and be prepared to resign if a superior or politician requests otherwise.