Nduom to scrap regional, local gov’t ministries

A future government of the Progressive People’s Party (PPP) will scrap the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development and also disband all regional ministries, thus making it unnecessary to have 10 regional ministers, Dr Papa Kwesi Nduom has said. He said a PPP government would have less than 40 ministers.

According to him, such a system will help reduce the number of ministers he will appoint in his government while devolving the powers of the central government by allowing elected metropolitan, municipal and district chief executives to have total oversight over their localities without any political interference from regional ministers who are appointed by the president.

Dr Nduom said a PPP government would work with parliament to elect MMDCEs, thus making the need for a Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development needless.

Interacting with the electorate live on Facebook on Thursday, 20 October, Dr Nduom said a future PPP government would also change the law that requires the president to appoint 50 percent of his ministers from the legislature. In his view, such a move would help strengthen and make parliament more independent of the executive arm of government as the situation currently pertains.

This, in his view, would allow MPs to focus on their law-making duties while Ministers also focus on executing their job effectively without either of them having divided attention.

Dr Nduom is currently battling the Electoral Commission in court over his disqualification from the 2016 presidential race.