President Akufo-Addo (right) in a handshake with ex President Mahama<\/p>\n
Former President John Dramani Mahama has slammed President Nana Akufo-Addo\u2019s government large size government describing it as a Guinness World Record.<\/strong><\/p>\n The flag bearer of the main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) said President Akufo-Addo is overburdening Ghanaians with the\u00a0125 ministers.<\/p>\n He argued that President Akufo-Addo can let go of about 40 minister whose portfolio are not impactful.<\/p>\n In a Facebook Live interaction with the public, said: \u201cI think two days ago, I spoke about [the size of this government] and recommended to the President that he should reduce the size of his government by about 40 ministers, immediately. He can let 40 ministers go, it will not have any effect at all on the current performance of his government, but I think that: (1) it\u2019s symbolic and (2) the impact it has\u201d.<\/p>\n Mr Mahama explained that: \u201cIt\u2019s symbolic because when Ghanaians are going through difficulties and you come with a government the size of 125 ministers \u2013 which I\u2019m told is a Guinness World Record \u2013 amongst all countries, we have the biggest number of ministers, then people feel that you are not taking them seriously\u201d.<\/p>\n According to Mr Mahama, dropping 40 ministers will bring efficiency by reducing the expenditure of the government and help balance the budget.<\/p>\n Speaking during a closed-door meeting with some disappointed business owners and importers in his office on Monday, 19 August 2019, the former President noted, in reaction to concerns about the government\u2019s increasing budget overruns, that: \u201cThere can be no justification for some of the ministerial portfolios created by this administration.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe Senior Minister, Minister of State in the Office of Vice-President, Minister of State in the Office of the Senior Minister, Ministers of Procurement, Monitoring and Evaluation; Business Development, Special Initiatives, Aviation, Railway Development are all an unnecessary charge on the public purse\u201d, Mr Mahama stated.<\/p>\n Mr. Mahama argued that a large number of ministers was a huge drain on public funds.<\/p>\n \u201cGovernment expenditure has ballooned and they are not able to collect enough revenue to meet the high expenditure. And part of the high expenditure is because of the huge number of political appointments.\u201d<\/p>\n Citing some examples, Mr. Mahama singled out, among others, the Procurement Minister as being redundant.<\/p>\n \u201cProcurement ministry will go. You have a whole Public Procurement Authority which was supervised by the Ministry of Finance. What do you need a Procurement Minister for?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" President Akufo-Addo (right) in a handshake with ex President Mahama Former President John Dramani Mahama has slammed President Nana Akufo-Addo\u2019s government large size government describing it as a Guinness World Record. The flag bearer of the main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) said President Akufo-Addo is overburdening Ghanaians with the\u00a0125 ministers. He argued that President […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":66,"featured_media":1876,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,7,8,12],"tags":[1156,675,43],"class_list":["post-1875","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-head-lines","category-homepage-english","category-policy","tag-guinness-world-record","tag-john-mahama","tag-nana-akufo-addo"],"yoast_head":"\n