Let Ghana Cut Its Coat According To the Size of Its Cloth

By: Otchere Darko

Reference (1): “678 presidential staffers at the Flagstaff house” [By Courtesy of Ghanaweb General News of Wednesday, 12 February 2014; Source: radioxyzonline.com ]

Reference (2): “Presidential brouhaha: Kufuor had 692 staffers in 2005” [By Courtesy of Ghanaweb General News of Friday, 14 February 2014;Source: myjoyonline.com]

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When a man wearing an expensive “kente cloth” sits along the street, with a bowl in his hand begging for money, he does not only fail to get sympathy and help from passers-by, but in addition, he presents himself as either a ‘fatuous idiot’ or a ‘conning scamp’ or both.

Dr Kwame Nkrumah’s last few years before he was overthrown were characterised by economic ‘difficulties’ that caused several Ghanaians in those days to complain. Those “hardships”, however, came as a result of his numerous [and probably ‘overambitious’] capital projects. *Dr Nkrumah’s efforts to finance those numerous projects had begun to have a toll on the nation’s budgets and, thus, on his (Dr Nkrumah’s) government’s ability to provide Ghanaian people with the ‘basics’ necessary for their daily sustenance. Ghana’s first president (Dr Kwame Nkrumah), however, has since his death been hailed by several Ghanaians and expatriates for his unique national development “vision”, which he pursued through adoption of ‘prudent use’ of domestic resources and external capital and other foreign-sourced developmental inputs borrowed, or received in aid.

Apart from the early nineteen-sixties’ “hardships” attributed to Dr Kwame Nkrumah’s long string of capital projects that brought some degree of general “suffering” to Ghanaians, in exchange for national development and progress, it seems to me that no other period in Ghana’s political history beats, or even matches President Mahama’s record of “popular resentment” over the level of “hardships” that Ghanaians generally go through currently. Even Dr Kofi Abrefa Busia and Dr Hilla Limann performed far-far better than President John Dramani Mahama, in my opinion, despite the fact that the two civilian leaders were prematurely removed from office by self-seeking military adventurists who always seize the opportunity to ‘grab power’ whenever they ‘smell’ the slightest ‘scent’ of popular resentments within the country.

I strongly, feel that, unless President Mahama changes some of his ill-fated policies, he will for decades go down in Ghanaian history as the worst President ever to lead the country; while his political mentor, Dr Kwame Nkrumah, will continue to endear many Ghanaians, including myself and even many from traditions that ‘chastised’ him during his days, notwithstanding the fact that his last years in office were seen by several Ghanaians of those days as “hard times”.

It is not too late for President Mahama to change ‘course’ and move away from ‘wasting money’, to spending Ghana’s money more prudently through actions like ‘public-sector thinning’ and ‘government-staff pruning’, with the view to weeding out all ‘prickles of inefficiency’ within the public sector, and all ‘twits and twisters’ who constitute redundant labour and non-performing ‘parasitic cuckoos’ within corporate public bodies that survive on ‘handouts’ from tax-payers.

*What are some of the areas that require either ‘thinning’ or ‘pruning’ by the government, in order to cut down public expenditure and salvage the Ghanaian economy, as well as salvage the ‘self-induced coma image’ of the president?

*Below are four areas where the president can, and must either ‘thin’ or ‘prune out’ disproportionate public sector staff, in my opinion.

(1) Presidential staffers at the Flagstaff House: I suggest President Mahama must drastically ‘prune’ the size of his presidential staffers at the Flagstaff House. This ‘pruning’ will help cut down the cost of running the presidency. Some past presidents in Ghana may have had sizes that were bigger than that of President Mahama. That point is accepted. However, that fact will not be a good justification for the president to maintain the current size. Time and situation change; and both always call for appropriate changes. The president will be seen by many independent analysts and observers as ‘irresponsible’, if he continues to keep such high number of staff at his office at a time when the cedi and Ghana’s economy are very fast ‘nose-diving’. It is a totally misguided argument for some people to compare the size of presidential staffers in Kufuor’s government and that of President Mahama’s government. The nation’s economy and its currency were both stronger during the said past period that is being compared with now.

(2) Ambassadorial staff: I also suggest that President Mahama must ‘prune’ the size of his ambassadorial staff, by closing down some embassies and transferring the ambassadorial responsibility for those areas to other embassies nearby. That will help cut down on government’s need for foreign currency to pay ambassadorial staff. *It is without disrespect to Christianity in general and the Papacy in particular for me to comment that I was shocked to read that the president has sent an ambassador to the Papacy at a time, and in a situation like the one we have in Ghana today. Could the president not allow the Ghanaian Ambassador to Italy to handle, in addition, ambassadorial affairs at the Papacy? Or was it part of a policy of “finding jobs for party faithfuls”?

(3) Ministerial Staff: The president must also cut down public expenditure on running government ministries in Ghana, by combining some ministries and placing such combined ministries under single ministers with dual or multiple supervisory roles over the combined ministries. I do not want to suggest which ministries should be joined up with which ones. I rather leave that to presidential advisers to advise the president on.

(4) Government Staff in State and Quasi-State Institutions and Organisations: President Mahama should consider privatising non-performing and problem-ridden state institutions and organisations, such as Tema Oil Refinery. Such privatisation will increase efficiency and, also, help to cut down on government spending. Continuing to keep non-performing and problem-ridden state institutions and organisations under state ownership is tantamount to throwing valuable tax-payers’ money into the dustbin.

Governments of richer Western nations like USA, UK and the euro-countries have, since the 2007/2008 ‘credit crunch’, undergone cost-cutting measures to save their failing economies. President Mahama’s government must learn from them, in order to halt the fast-failing Ghanaian economy and end the president’s own fast dipping presidential image.

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*Please Note this Information about the Author: *The writer who posted this particular article [and numerous other previous ones] was educated at both Konongo-Odumasi Secondary School and the School of Administration of University of Ghana, where he graduated. He left Ghana for the Diaspora in January 1982, and has since lived outside the country. He is not the same as Mr Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko, who often gets insulted wrongly for articles written and posted by this columnist.