Akufo-Addo promoting ‘official waste’ in the system – Franklin Cudjoe

President of policy think tank, IMANI Africa, Franklin Cudjoe, has criticized the record appointment and the huge staff at the Presidency by President Akufo-Addo saying its only “making former President Mahama a saint.”

The situation, according to Cudjoe is the hallmark of unplanned policy programmes and a clear case of ‘official waste’ in the system.

In a post on his Facebook page, Mr. Franklin Cudjoe intimated: “Mahama’ NDC planned to spend GH¢768.1 m on Office of Government Machinery in 2016, but a supplementary budget adjusted it upwards to almost GH¢3 billion but, ended up spending more than GH¢6.1 billion an overrun of nearly GH¢3bn. In 2017, the NPP planned to spend GH¢1.5bn on the Office of Government Machinery. Notice a doubling of the NDC’s planned expenditure. We are yet to know the overruns from the Audit report for 2017. In 2018, the NPP plans to spend GH¢3bn on the Office of Government Machinery. So, you see where I am drawing my inferences? It may even be worse when the actuals come.”

His comments follow the release of a list of 998 current staffers and ministers of state at the presidency to Parliament for the purposes of accountability.

The list, which is for the period January 7, 2017, to December 31, 2017, is in line with the constitution and the Presidential Office Act 1993, which enjoins the Presidency to annually brief Parliament on the list of persons who work at the Presidency.

But the disclosure has triggered public debate with the opposition referring to the size of the employees in the Office of the President as “obese “government.