Kwakye Ofosu dismisses justifications for large size ministers …but govt insists it is manifesting in devt
Felix Kwakye
Ofosu, a former Deputy Minister of Communications, has criticised the president
for appointing 125 ministers to serve in his government, over 30 more ministers
than his predecessors had.
“The explanations for a bloated government we have
had so far do not make sense because there are countries that are much bigger
than Ghana, have much bigger populations, have more complex difficulties that
do not have 125 ministers,” he bemoaned, and dismissed the justifications.
The most
recent additions came as the nation created six new regions in 2019; that is
the Western North, Oti, Ahafo, Bono East, Savannah and North East Regions.
President Nana Akufo-Addo has consistently
justified his ‘elephant-sized’ government, and maintained that “as you know
there are some who say my government is too big and there are too many
ministers, I am a firm believer in the adage that the proof of the pudding is
in the eating”.
According to Mr Ofosu, he heard Herbert Krappa,
a government appointee, claim that for instance, the Gross Domestic Product
growth of 6.7 per cent was enough justification for having 125 ministers, the
growth was a decline from 2017 when they had 8.1 per cent because of 8.6 per cent
in oil production, due to the work done by the previous administration.
Former President John Mahama, the flagbearer of
the National Democratic Congress (NDC), had stated that he would scrap some of
the newly created ministries by the Akufo-Addo-led administration if the NDC is
voted back into power in 2021.
“Government
expenditure has ballooned and they are not able to collect enough revenue to
meet the high expenditure, part of the high expenditure is because of the huge
number of political appointments,” the former president bemoaned, and citing
some examples, singled out, among others, the Minister for Procurement as being
redundant.
But
the government insists that the large government size was manifesting in
development.
Hebert Krapa, the government spokesperson on Governance and Legal Affairs, cited the industrialisation of social interventions and maintained that “the president believes that the citizenry will come to understand why he took such courageous decision and his achievements will vindicate his decision, I think it is disjointed to say it is not reflecting in their standards, the number of ministers is reflecting steady progress we are making.” –citinewsroom.com