Pratt calls for major ministerial shake-up

Managing editor of the Insight newspaper, Kwesi Pratt has called for a major shake-up in government for a string of disappointing performances from appointed government functionaries.

Speaking on Metro TV's Good Morning Ghana, Mr. Pratt said six months into the John Mahama administration, it was obvious that some ministers needed to go.

Short on names, the senior journalist also said members and board chairmen of corporations ought to be sacked because “things are not moving”.

He said, on more than two occasions, the president’s promise to end the electricity crisis by certain dates proved to be empty.

These promises, he said, were based on advice given by government functionaries who should now bear responsibility for causing embarrassments to the Presidency.

“Who gave him that information which misled him completely? Shouldn’t that person face the music?” he quizzed.

He referred to concerns expressed by the Majority Leader, Benjamin Kunbuor, who complained about embarrassing errors in the tabling of government business in Parliament.

Kwesi Pratt also referred to an incident in Parliament last week when a COCOBOD request to waive stamp duty worth 15 million dollars on a loan was wrongly written as 150 million dollars- a major humiliation for the Majority Leader.

The managing editor said it was unacceptable for this error to move undetected from COCOBOD to the Ministry of Finance, Attorney-General’s Department, to Select Committees in Parliament and to Cabinet.

He said it would not be surprising to find at COCOBOD, highly qualified directors earning more than the president yet committing fundamental errors.

“Go and look at the salaries top management people are earning at COCOBOD…with huge qualifications which can feel this room,” he said

Speaking “from the bottom of my heart,” Kwesi Pratt insisted that “the way things are going there should be a major shake-up...it is important for the survival of this administration”.

He added that “the crisis is obvious” and that “we cannot continue like this for the next three and a half years”.

He criticized the tendency of sycophancy among those surrounding the president and said it was counter to solving concrete problems.

“We have to say things as they are” and stop this “nicey-nicey” attitude he charged.

He noted the president is constantly being misled and wondered “what kind of a country is this?” - a question, the host, Randy Abbey volunteered to answer - “Ghana”.