The Minister for Information has shot down arguments that President Akufo-Addo’s huge government size will take a toll on the nation’s coffers.
“…If you need more hands to ensure that we are protecting bigger money, you might do so because it’s better,” he argued.
His comment comes after the backlash against the President for appointing 54 more substantive and deputy ministers on Wednesday, bringing the total number to 110.
[contextly_sidebar id=”vXP0JulGhZ3O9odPWgUmpHsQerMmJkLp”]Critics of the government including the opposition National Democratic Congress and the People’s National Convention, have argued that it is sheer waste of resources especially when the government says the country is almost broke.
Speaking on the Citi Breakfast Show, Mustapha Hamid stressed the end result is what matters.
“We all agree that we ought to find ways of protecting the public purse and everybody agrees that in Africa the biggest problem that we face as a continent is not because we don’t have resources, often times it’s because of corruption. We lose a lot of money to corruption. And we all agree again that the biggest spot of our loss of money is through dubious procurement practices.”
Mr. Hamid further explained that, due to the absence of a Procurement Minister in previous times, there were a number of ministers of state who force the Procurement Authority into acceding to their demands hence causing the nation to “lose billions of cedis in contracts.”
He also defended the new deputy ministerial appointments to the Attorney General’s department.
“If you have two ministers at the Attorney General’s department who would sign off monies like we signed for people like Woyome, versus having three ministers who would have a better scrutiny. Look at all the 43 power purchase agreements that we have said that we are having to review. So if you need more hands to ensure that we are protecting bigger money, you might do because it’s better,” the minister added.
Justification for 110 ministers ‘senseless’ – Asiedu Nketia
Meanwhile, the General Secretary of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Johnson Asiedu Nketiah, has described as senseless the justification of President Akufo-Addo’s 110 ministerial appointments.
“…The argument that the economy is so destroyed that they need a bigger team to do work also doesn’t make sense,” he added.
–
By: Godwin A. Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @AlloteyGodwin