I won’t govern Ghana with ‘elephant-size’ ministers – John Mahama

Former Ghanaian leader John Mahama says a future NDC government will downsize its Ministers when voted into office in the next elections.

The NDC flagbearer in a Facebook interaction with Ghanaians on Monday, December 23 slammed President Nana Akufo-Addo’s huge government size, describing it as ineffective.

Citing the Procurement Ministry, to back his claims, Mr. Mahama said there are many infractions ongoing in the public sector despite an entire ministry dedicated to curb same.

He was, however, quick to add that he would scrap a number of Ministries and reduce the number of Ministers.

“You can’t be asking Ghanaians to tighten their belts while you have 125 Ministers and have increased the number of Ministries to over 50,” the former President stated.

Akufo-Addo defends bloated gov’t

Meanwhile, President Akufo-Addo has mounted a strong defence of a largely unpopular decision to announce a government size bigger than any other in the country’s history.

Responding to critics in an interview, the president said cost of running this large sized government will become a non-issue in the next few years by which time his government would have built a better, bigger economy.

In any case, he argued about 65% of his appointees are already in Parliament drawing salaries and the cost involved in turning them into ministers will be just a drop in the ocean.

The president currently has appointed about 125 ministers and deputy ministers to steer the affairs of the country.

The number of ministerial appointees is the biggest in the history of government, with the Information, Energy, Finance, Agric, Ministries having as many as three deputies.

Source: Jonathan Ofori, Daily Mail GH