Size of government getting too big

Member of Parliament(MP) for Bawku Central, Mahama Ayariga, has reignited the debate on the requisite size of government as President Kufuor releases a third list of deputy ministerial nominees.

He is also questioning the motive behind some of the nominations.

According to the latest list of nominees released yesterday, Mr. Fredrick Opare-Ansah will go to the Ministry of Communications as a Deputy Minister; MP for Asokwa, Maxwell Kofi Jumah is heading to the Ministry of Environment, Local Government and Rural Development whilst Spokesman on Governance, Frank Agyekum has been nominated Deputy Minister for Information and National Orientation.

There are indications that more nominations may come out soon.

But speaking to the Accra-based FM station, JOYFM, Ayariga suggested that the President is using the recent reshuffle to perpetuate his hold on the NPP without assessing the cost to the state.

He said since the state, and not the President pays for the remuneration and facilities provided for the appointees to do their work, it was not enough to leave the president to appoint as many as he wants without the rest of society raising questions.

He said “We have an interest in the numbers so we can’t just leave it to the President to decide how many people he wants to appoint. We have to constantly be on the watch to find out; do you really need this size of government to run this country. And the matter hasn’t died, we have to constantly be on the watch. So let’s figure out how many people at the end of the day will come out as ministers of state and deputy ministers. Do we need that number, apart from all the technical people we have at the ministries to run this country and how much we as a nationa paying for it?”