Economist Prof. George Ayittey says President John Mahama must cut by half, the 97 Ministers and Deputies at the Flagstaff House.

He said President Mahama has “inherited a huge structural deficit problem” which can only be dealt with by taking “politically difficult choices”.

At a press briefing on ‘the state of the Ghanaian economy and proposals to reverse the downward trend’, the retired Professor of Economics at the American University and Visiting Senior Fellow at the Institute of Economic Affairs, said though he believed President Mahama did not lack the competence to deal with the problem, “he wouldn’t be able to do this because it is a politically difficult choice for him to do”.

“…On his own, President Mahama will find it very difficult to do it because it will mean him sacking his own ministers. That is politically difficult”, Prof Ayittey acknowledged.

According to him, the only body that can compel the President to cut by half the number of his Minister is Parliament.

“It's parliament that can say that ‘look if you don’t cut down the number of Ministers and deputy Ministers, we are not going to give you a penny'. That is where the pressure has to come from”, Prof. Ayittey suggested.

Additionally, Prof Ayittey recommends that the President abolishes all the “perks and privileges” enjoyed by his appointees because they are “a relic of the colonial past”.

He also suggests that the government retrieves all state property including “bungalows that have been handed over to former government officials”.

“Seek the return of all the Sakumono flats to the State”, Prof Ayittey said.