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The National Chairman of the Progressive People’s Party (PPP), Nana Ofori Owusu, has described the current action of the President to replace ministers and fill vacant positions as unproductive and a bane to the development of the nation.

According to him, what the PPP and the rest of the country were calling for was a drastic reduction in the size of government and its expenditure, and not the filling of vacant positions.

Mr Owusu said this in an interview with the Daily Graphic while sharing his views on President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s new appointment of ministers and deputy ministers to fill certain ministerial vacancies.

Good faith

The President, Mr Owusu said, after asking citizens to burden share through policies such as a Domestic Debt Exchange Programme (DDEP), among others, was also expected to show good faith to the same citizens by displaying readiness to burden share by reducing the size of his government.

“The President can’t ask the people to burden share when he obviously will not amend his expenditure downwards,” he said.

The National Chairman of the PPP added that the President’s refusal to listen to public concerns and his reluctance to downsize his government by at least half exposed him as a President who cared less about the views of those he governed

He added that it was also a signal suggesting that the President was not willing to cut expenditures amid the current economic difficulties.

“Such actions by the President are an affront to the public because the President is missing out on good governance principles,” he said.

Solution

Mr Owusu maintained that an effective and efficient government was not contained in a large government but rather it was about ensuring an effective public service to complement the effort of the government to deliver public goods.

He, therefore, called on the President once more to go back to the drawing table to cut down the size of his administration by merging some ministries, removing some appointees and reducing expenditures to reflect the current economic conditions of the country.

“Maintaining a large size government at this time is counterproductive to our efforts, and the President must show leadership to restore hope in the country,” Mr Owusu said.

President Akufo-Addo last Tuesday submitted to Parliament the names of ministers and deputy ministers with changes that comprise reshuffles, elevations, replacements, new faces and the filing of vacuums created by the resignation of three ministers.

The list had Member of Parliament (MP) for Adansi Asokwa and former Deputy Minister of Energy, Kobina Tahiru Hammond, nominated for the Ministry of Trade and Industry, the Abetifi MP and former Minister of State at the Presidency, Bryan Acheampong,as the Minister of Food and Agriculture, while the immediate past Director-General of the State Interests and Governance Authority Stephen Asamoah Boateng, takes over as Minister of Chieftaincy and Religious Affairs.

Others are a Deputy Minister of Energy, Dr Mohammed Amin Adam and MP for Karaga as Minister of State at the Ministry of Finance to replace Charles Adu Boahen, who resigned last year.

A Deputy Minister of Local Government, Decentralisation and Rural Development, Osei Bonsu Amoah, was elevated as a Minister of State at the same Ministry while a Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry has been reassigned as a Deputy Minister of Energy to replace Dr Adam, with the MP for Nhyiaso, Dr Stephen Amoah as a Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry.