The founding President of Imani Africa, Franklin Cudjoe, has expressed disappointment at the number of ministers appointed by President Akufo-Addo.
According to him, the president has appointed too many ministers to serve in government, arguing this will have negative implications on the public purse.
President Akufo-Addo on Wednesday made new ministerial appointments, bringing the number appointed so far to 110.
Reacting to the news, Franklin Cudjoe told Richard Sky on Eyewitness News that the size of the current government does not reflect the pledge by Nana Akufo-Addo to protect the public purse.
“You would have thought that the words used by the president himself in the run-up to the 2016 elections that he will protect the public purse will be minded at least so when I hear the minister for information saying the economy is a weak economy, and so you need a strong army of people, well then you may as well add militia people.”
Franklin Cudjoe said although the President had the constitutional right to appoint ministers of a number of his choice, it is not prudent to appoint too many of them.
He described the appointment as a “legal plunder” in the face of the country’s weak economy.
“The second justification for this which tells me that we’ve completely lost the plot, is this whole business that because the constitution allows it, there is an open-ended opportunity, in my description of prudence, that falls under legal plunder. The fact that the law says that you can go and on does not mean that the very weak fundamentals of the economy that you said you met should be plundered in this manner” he said.
“An output based governance is based on some serious policy. You take education, for instance, the major deliverable is ‘Free SHS’, have you seen any major policy document guiding how this will be deployed?… Have you seen a policy called planting for food and jobs? To see that we have a minister of state for Agriculture at the presidency and at the same time we have two deputy ministers for Agriculture, what will they be doing?” he quizzed.
‘Ghana can do with 30 ministers’
Meanwhile, Frankling Cudjoe has suggested that the country needs just bout 30 ministers to serve in the various ministries.
According to him, some countries with larger economies have fewer ministries or ministers than Ghana.
“This country can do with about 30 ministers and that is set. I’ve been to Australia and the UK, and their institutions and ministries that are being collapsed into desks for agency heads. That is a country that is vast like a continent in itself. I think 30 ministers can do for this country,” he said.
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