Professor Baffour Agyeman-Duah, a Governance expert and Co-founder of the Centre for Democratic Development-Ghana (CDD-Ghana), has urged President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to reduce the number of deputy ministers in his second term.
“There are some government ministries that do not deserve deputy ministers to assist and support the substantive ministers.
“I think there are certain ministries that do not need deputies but there are a few of them that deserve a minimum of two deputies such as Education, take Agriculture and perhaps Energy, these are ministries that really require some kind of support and assistance from their duties, but there are many others that don’t need it,” Prof. Agyeman-Duahsaid.
President Nana Akufo-Addo, at the inception of his second term, promised to drop some of the 126ministers appointed in his first term to have 85 after his administration received backlash for its large size.
However, Prof. Agyeman-Duah observed that the President was in a quagmire due to his promise of having a lean government.
He indicated that ‘if the president is serious about cutting down the number to 85 as he has already told the nation, then he must decide which ministries can go without a deputy and as I said earlier there are some ministries that really don’t deserve deputies for the kind of work they do.
“In choosing the deputy ministers, the President’s decision should be based on his priority areas in the government because it is very difficult in maintaining the ministries.I think in the midst of our personal difficulty and economic difficulty and all that, the president should be advised on his appointments,” Prof. Agyeman-Duah pointed out. –kasapafmonline.com
