Politics

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

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