Akufo-Addo’s appointments ‘beats every imagination; he has woefully failed – Bentil

Vice-President of IMANI Kofi Bentil says President Akufo-Addo has ‘woefully failed’ to protect the public purse in seeking to have 110 ministers and deputies, the highest-ever by any government.

Speaking on the Joy FM’s Super Morning Show Thursday, Kofi Bentil of the  liberal think-tank was emphatic that the numbers does not represent value for money promised Ghanaians by the President.

His criticism is part of an uproar on social media after the President released a list of 54 ministers of state and deputies to add to 56 others.

The figure is 30% increase in the previous government’s size of 84 ministers and deputies. His government has created  at least 5 new ministerial portfolios – Special Development Initiatives minister, Business Development minister, Zongo and Inner City Development minister, Regional re-organisation minister and Planning minister.

These new positions were criticised as unnecessary because it would create too many overlapping functions.

The criticisms notwithstanding, the President in his fresh list has nominated a Minister of State for Tertiary Education and a Minister of Education.

The President has also nominated as many as three deputies in four different ministries – the Energy, Information, Finance and Local Government ministries.

For information and government communication, there is a Communication Director at the Presidency and a deputy plus an Information minister and three deputies.

Picking up on the Information ministry, Kofi Bentil who has been advocating for its scrapping, is even more shocked that the President would go ahead to appoint three deputies ‘just to give us information’.

He restated his belief that the Information ministry has outlived its usefulness because of the proliferation of information on radio, TV, internet and social media.

He said the Information Service Department, an agency under the ministry is not needed any longer. He said government can simply do with an information desk at the presidency to disseminate any government communication through a multiplicity of media channels.

The lean government advocate said developed countries have moved beyond a huge bureaucracy for government communications.

“It beats every imagination that you still maintain a Ministry of Information, you still have Information Service Department, you put a minister there and you put three deputy ministers there…there is no good justification for this” he condemned the president’s decision.