A report presented to the House by the Appointments Committee tasked to vet the nominees, recommended the approval of 8 out of the 13 nominees who appeared before the committee with the minister-nominee of Energy, Boakye Agyarko, and Senior minister nominee, Osafo Maafo being excluded.

It is unclear why the two nominees were not recommended for approval.

Suggestions are that they are yet to submit some vital documents for clarification, regarding their stance on certain issues they raised during their vetting.

‘Approved ministers’

The following ministers were duly approved by Parliament and will officially commence work after they have been sworn in by the President.

Albert Kan-Dapaah (National security minister-designate)

Ken Ofori Atta (Finance Minister-designate)

Alan Kyerematen (Trade and Industry minister-designate)

Gloria Akuffo (Attorney general and Justice minister-designate)

Ambrose Dery (Interior minister-designate)

Dominic Nitiwul (Defence minister-designate)

Hajia Alima Mahama (Local government and rural development minister-designate)

Shirley Ayorkor Botchway (Foreign affairs minister-designate)

The 24-member Appointments Committee of Parliament hosted the first batch of the ministerial nominees to assess their preparedness to occupy the office between Friday, January 20th, and Tuesday, January 24, 2017.

The Committee is expected to vet the second batch of ministerial nominees by the President from Monday, 30^th January 2017.

‘Akufo-Addo nominates ministers’

Following his inauguration as President, Nana Akufo-Addo named some 36 nominees expected to serve in his government as ministers.

Nana Addo has also upon his assumption of office, made several other appointments to change the heads of various institutions including the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority, Ghana National Petroleum Commission, National Communications Authority among others.

He recently named ten nominees to serve as regional ministers in his government.

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By: Jonas Nyabor/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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The report which was scheduled to be considered by the House yesterday [Wednesday] had to be delayed to enable the committee put finality to it.

The Committee in its report will recommend the approval or otherwise of the nominees by the House.

After the approval, the designated ministers will be sworn in by the President to officially begin work as ministers.

The 24-member Appointments Committee of Parliament hosted the first batch of the ministerial nominees to assess their preparedness to occupy the office between Friday, January 20^th and Tuesday, January 24, 2017.

Nominees who have already appeared before the committee include; Senior Minister nominee, Yaw Osafo-Maafo; National Security Minister nominee, Albert Kan-Dapaah; Finance Minister nominee, Ken Ofori-Atta, and Defence Minister nominee, Dominic Nitiwul.

The others are, Attorney-General and Justice Minister nominee, Ms Gloria Akuffo, the Minister nominee for the Interior, Mr Ambrose Dery; Minister nominee for Local Government and Rural Development, Hajia Alima Mahama; Minister nominee for  Trade and Industry, Mr Alan Kwadwo Kyerematen; the Minister nominee for Agriculture, Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto, and the Minister nominee for Energy, Mr Emmanuel Boakye Agyarko.

The Foreign Affairs minister nominee, Shirley Ayorkor Botchway; the Minister nominee for Education, Dr Mathew Opoku Prempeh, and the Minister nominee for Health, Mr Kwaku Agyeman-Manu have also been vetted.

‘Akufo-Addo nominates ministers’

Following his inauguration as President, Nana Akufo-Addo named some 36 nominees expected to serve in his government as ministers.

He has also upon his assumption of office, made several other appointments to change the heads of various institutions including the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority, Ghana National Petroleum Commission, National Communications Authority among others.

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By: Jonas Nyabor/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @jnyabor

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The party believes the Chairman is “over-protecting” various minister nominees appearing before it, and not “allowing the minority to flow more”.

This position was reiterated by the National Organizer of the NDC, Kofi Adams, who told Citi News “the leadership is just there to frustrate the work” of the committee.

“I don’t think that it’s decent enough. They should allow the minority to scrutinize those appearing before them because at the end of the day, when they get confirmed, they are going to be working for Ghana, using the authority of the state,” Mr Adams said.

He noted that, the Chairman’s position “sometimes even embarrasses his own members”.

“I have witnessed instances where the Majority Leader even came in to say that he believed that some questions that had been overruled by the chair of the committee should be allowed to pass, but when the ranking member feels that a ruling is not in the best interest, and the nominee should be made to answer, he doesn’t allow.”

Thirteen minister nominees have been vetted so far.

These include Minister Nominees for the Agriculture, Education, Health, Foreign, Finance and Local Government and Rural Development. The rest are Senior Minister, Energy, Trade and Industry, Attorney General, Defence, Interior and National Security.

While some have endured what has been described by many as grueling moments before the committee, others have sailed through rather easily.

Despite his stance that the Minority is being hindered, Kofi Adams said the minority members on the committee are doing their best in probing the issues.

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By:Eugenia Tenkorang/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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According to him, Akufo-Addo’s appointments and the introduction of some new ministries are part of his plan to ensure positive change in Ghana.

[contextly_sidebar id=”YJGQ2ZxvVYdiN1x2fnGKCjuEO1JCNA3R”]Barely a week after assuming office as President, Akufo-Addo has come under criticism over some persons he has appointed to serve in key ministerial positions and also introducing some new ministries.

But speaking to Citi News, former President, John Kufuor said Ghanaians must be interested in the delivery of the promises made by the President and not his appointments.

He therefore charged critics of President Akufo-Addo to judge him by the quality of his work and not the number of his ministers.

‘I am very confident in his team. Look, the country has assigned him a job. We should give him the free hand to do the job for us. We didn’t vote for nothing. We voted because we expect him to give solutions to us. And he says this is the way I can do the work. And you sit on the sidelines and say I won’t allow you to use the method you can use to give us the solutions. Is that what we want…Let’s measure him by the way he works?’ he argued.

Nana Akufo-Addo realigned some ministries and created some new ones including the Ministry for Inner Cities and Zongo Development, Ministry for Planning, Ministry for Business Development among others which has received a lot of criticism especially from the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC).

But former President John Kufour believes the President must be given the free hand to fix his team.

He called on Ghanaians to measure Nana Addo’s performance instead of the number of his team “so let’s allow the President to fix his team and then let’s measure him by the way he delivers the results not the numbers.”

‘Akufo-Addo makes key appointments’

President Akufo-Addo has so far nominated 36 persons to fill various ministerial portfolios.

He had earlier named 12 people who will work at the Presidency as his administrative staff.

He is expected to name his regional ministers this week.

‘Parliament to vet Akufo-Addo’s ministerial nominees’

Parliament has constituted a 26-member Appointments Committee also known as Vetting Committee to vet the nominees for various ministerial portfolios from the President Akufo Addo.

The committee will be chaired by Joseph Osei-Owusu, MP for Bekwai and First Deputy Speaker of Parliament and Haruna Iddrisu, Minority Leader and MP for Tamale South as ranking member.

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By: Caleb Kudah/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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