Calls For Scraping Of Some Ministries Of State

NEWS COMMENTARY QUESTIONS THE EXISTENCE OF SOME MINISTRIES OF STATE AND CALLS FOR A SECOND LOOK AT THEIR CONTINUOUS EXISTENCE.

The 1992 Constitution of Ghana clothed the President of the Republic with powers to create ministries and appoint ministers and their deputies in line with the developmental agenda of the country. This discretionary power some observers of our political space believe has been used capriciously and must be re-examined and steps taken, to have some lid on the number of ministers of state and ministries we should be having as a nation. When President Akufo-Addo took over the reigns of the country he “populated” the ministerial portfolios and vividly justified it, saying the tasks of sending the nation to the promised land and cleaning the mess of the previous administration demand a number of hands-on deck. He created some new ministries to the admiration of party faithful who helped to bring the “elephant” back to the seat of Government. A single purpose and time-bound ministries like the Ministry of Regional Reorganisation and Development was created and continue to exist months after its main purpose has been achieved. Yes! government has justified its existence, explaining that it has to see to it that the new regions are properly grounded. Critics believe that after the creation of the new regions, regional ministers appointed and seed capital advanced to the regions to kick start operations, there is no need for the Ministry of Regional Reorganisation and Development to continue to exist and burden the public purse. Another Ministry some political watchers want scraped is the Ministry of Monitoring and Evaluation. The last time we heard of this Ministry was when it presented a report on the performance of ministers to the President and the Ministers lined up in an in-camera hearing to respond to issues pertaining to their sectors. Is this Ministry doing something significant that the public is not aware of? Some analysts have stated that with the Ministry of Planning and the National Development Planning Commission in place, having the Monitoring and Evaluation Ministry is superfluous, giving the fact that all ministries and agencies already have such functions incorporated in their structures. The Ministry of Inner City and Zongo Development and the Minister in charge of Procurement portfolios are other creations, advocates for lean government are suggesting that they should be axed. Some of these ministries do not deserve to travel for four years. There were debates over the creation of these Ministries.

About three years down the line the brouhaha over the continued existence of some of the ministries has resurfaced. Stoking the debate once again is none other than one of the lead thinks tanks in the country, Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research, ISSER at the University of Ghana. Echoing the Institute’s sentiments and abhorrence to the continuous existence of some ministries at the launch of the 2018 State of the Ghanaian Economy and the 2019 Mid-Year Review, a Senior Research Fellow Dr. Charles Ackah said a lot of the duties of the “needless” Ministries could be handled by other ministries, departments, agencies and even the local Assemblies. The Senior Research Fellow posed a few questions. He said, “Shouldn’t we begin to discuss some of the Ministries we have and see whether we still need them? For instance, the Ministry for Inner City and Zongo Development, what are they doing and what value are we getting for the resources? Can those issues be tackled by the MMDAs without necessarily having a Ministry? The kind of expenditure they are making there, are they growth-enhancing?” These questions are poignant, apt and are in the interest of the state. We demand answers. Until some actions in a form of reshuffle and scraping of these resources sapping Ministries are taken, the debate over their existence will persist.

BY: DOMINIC HLORDZI, A JOURNALIST.