Advise Akufo-Addo appropriately on Jubilee House overstaffing – CDD to Council of State

The Ghana Center for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) has charged the Council of State members to advise the President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo appropriately on the overstaffing at the Jubilee House.

CDD expressed disappointment at the Council of State and Parliament for keeping mute over the 998 staff at the presidency.

In a statement issued by CDD, it said, ‘CDD-Ghana is also disappointed that neither the Council of State nor Parliament has seen fit to rein in this growing indifference of successive administrations to the fiscal cost of a super-sized presidential staff and retinue. Although the role of the Council of State in the staffing of the Presidency is, under the applicable statute, only consultative, the point of inserting the Council in the process is presumably to enable it counsel the President in its staffing decisions, including, we would expect, in the size, where it appears excessive’.

It entreated, ‘The Council of State to take its consultative role seriously and counsel the President appropriately concerning overstaffing at the Presidency, including the associated fiscal costs and the unfavourable perception it creates of profligacy in the conduct of the business of government at the seat of the presidency’.

CDD further urged Parliament to review the list submitted by the Presidency and demand additional information and clarity as to the precise roles and duties of the staff.

It demanded a disclosure of the salaries and emoluments attached to the listed positions.

‘Parliament, in the immediate term, to review the list submitted by the Presidency and demand additional information and clarity as to the precise roles and duties of the many political personnel listed with uninformative and vague job titles as well as require a disclosure of the salaries and emoluments attached to the listed positions,’ it admonished.

The office of the President and its peripheral institutions is said to have employed a total number of 998 workers since 2017.

There are 9 ministers of state, 27 presidential staffers, 256 other/junior appointees and 706 employees of public/civil service staff.

A section of Ghanaians and opposition parties have criticised the Akufo-Addo’s government for employing such a huge staff at a time the country is struggling to fix its economy describing it as ‘job for the boys’.

Read CDD’s full statement: