Minister of State For WHAT?

... Position Now Job For The Boys
...JAK to appoint more Ministers of State
Speculations flying in and around the high and respectable institutions in the country, including the House of Parliament, indicate that some Members of Parliament are not comfortable with the numerous appointments of Ministers of State by the President John Agyekum Kufuor.

They are therefore beginning to wonder if is now becoming a saga of `job for the boys and girls.`

At the recent public hearing of the Appointments Committing with regard to the appointment of Hon. Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, as the Minister of State with no clear specification of which Ministry he will be in charge of, Hon. Kyei-Mensah couldn`t satisfy the curiosity of the Minority Leader, Hon. Alban Bagbin, when he questioned him about the number of Ministers of State in the country so far.

According to sources in Parliament, there is every indication that the President may appoint more Ministers of State before the end of the year. In a chat on the matter, the Member of Parliament (MP) for Asawase, Hon. Alhaji Muntaka Mubarak, stated that despite the full respect he has for the President, the question of appointment of Ministers of State is now becoming a subject of mockery. He stressed that the President must not in any way abuse the trust the people had in him in electing him to his position.

Reacting to the speculations that perhaps the President is appointing the people in his party as a sign of appreciation because of his last term, Hon. Mubarak, who is also a member of the Appointments Committee, indicated that there is no way that the President can appoint people as Ministers of State as a sign of appreciation because he cannot finish since he has a lot of people in his life to show appreciation to. He, however, pointed out that if sincerely the President is appointing Ministers on the basis of effective work to be done, then it must be a concern to every citizen that all those appointed are doing their mandated duties to push the agenda of the nation forward, because the president does so at the expense of the tax payer in the country.

`But if it is for any thing else done, I am worried as a young politician because I don`t know what precedent they are leaving for us. Do we really need them or the President thinks he must give them a job…NDC had more than 70, and it was wrong; so the NPP must not repeat that mistake,` he warned. Hon. Mubarak suggested that Parliament peg the number of Ministers of State to at least 50, so that it will serve as a guideline to any government that will come into power.

He was of the view that some of the Ministries could be collapsed and added to other Ministries with Deputies and one substantive Minister, so that they will be more effective. Hon. Mubarak also argued that currently there is little coordination because one Ministry can have as many as three Deputy Ministers, a Minister of State, the substantive Minister and his Special Assistant plus the Chief Directors. This, he said, is detrimental to the country`s march forward.