Development Authorities Appointments mockery of ‘Ghana Beyond Aid’ – Cudjoe

The President of Policy Think-Tank IMANI Africa has described the appointment of 13 people to the newly established development authorities as a mockery to President Akufo-Addo’s ‘Ghana Beyond Aid’ agenda.

The president last week announced the appointment of the boss of Accra-based Citi FM Samuel Attah-Mensah, Joe Danquah and Alhaji Abdel-Majeed Haroun as Chief Executives Officers (CEOs) for the three development authorities—Coastal, Middle belt and Northern.

They will be assisted by 10 deputies with Atta-Mensah leading with four.

Their appointment was “in accordance with applicable laws,” a statement from the presidency said Friday, April 13.

“The appointees are to act pending the receipt of the constitutionally required advice of the governing Boards of the Development Authorities, given in consultation with the Public Services Commission,” said the statement issued by Eugene Arhin the Director of Communications, with a task of implementing the Infrastructure for Poverty Eradication Programme (IPEP).

The Programme will ensure the disbursement of the equivalent of $1 million per constituency per year, in fulfillment of President Akufo-Addo’s 2016 campaign pledge.

But speaking on Morning Starr with Francis Abban Monday April 16, Cudjoe argued that not only are the appointments incomprehensible but the reasoning behind the establishment of the three development authorities.

“It is essentially aggravated waste really and possibly job for the boys. And if you add this to the fact that we are going to have…38 new districts and then regions…the thing becomes more like some grand consent in which we are actually mocking this whole concept of ‘Ghana Beyond Aid’…because ‘Ghana Beyond Aid’ also means not being profligate and being mean in terms of the decisions you take,” he said.

Asked by Abban “to your mind, for these deputies that we are seeing; three of them what do we do, should we scrap it down to one deputy or no deputy at all?”, Cudjoe responded: “I’m just saying that the whole enchilada, both in thought that went into the creation of the development [authorities] together with its deputies and CEOs is a complete waste of resources, complete waste of our time and it is not the best use of our resources. So, if a follow up question is to be asked what we should do of the three deputies, well, they shouldn’t have existed.”

The Dean of Studies and Research at the Institute of Local Government Studies Dr. Eric Oduro Osae however disagreed.

Speaking on the same program, he said such creations and appointments help in accelerating the country’s development.

“For the Coastal Development Authority for instance for the four deputies I can imagine that the coastal base of Ghana, stretching from the Volta region to the Western region,” he said, adding, “we can have the Volta region, we can have the Greater Accra region, we can have the Central region and we can have the Western region. That constitutes four regions within the Coastal Development Authority’s area of jurisdiction.”

“So, if my thinking is right and my assumption is right” he posited, “then the Chief Executive will provide the direction and then give additional responsibilities to each of these deputies to be responsible for any of the regions.”