List Of 53 Additional Ministerial Nominees

?..tell me it ain?t so, Mr. President.

In today?s world where small, lean governments have become very fashionable much like downsizing was during the 80?s in Europe and the United States, Ghana?s parliament is readying itself to vet 53 additional nominees for ministerial appointments.

If the caboodle receives the green light from the bi-partisan vetting committee of Parliament, this would bring the total number of ministers who serve at the pleasure of President John Agyekum Kufuor to 88.

Without doubt this would make the Kufuor administration one of the biggest ?big governments? in Africa, if not the entire world.

By this feat, the administration of President Kufuor has broken a record it set during its first term when the number of ministers stood at 77. Meantime critics are holding the feet of the administration to the fire for ostensibly perpetuating the same sins it criticized its predecessor for when the New Patriotic Party (NPP) was in opposition.

The leading opposition party, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the other minority parties have raised strong queries about the rationale behind the appointments and have called on the government to scale back on the number in order to reduce expenditure.

The government?s response to the rising criticism of the number of ministerial appointees has been tenuous at best.

They claim that the 1992 constitution supports the present number of ministerial appointees and that those against it are basically in to cause mischief.

One of the main concerns behind this backlash from the opposition has to do with the distribution of the deputy ministerial nominees. Some of the nominees are being penciled in for ministries that already have one or two deputy Ministers already.

This means that if their vetting goes through some ministries are going to have three or four deputy Ministers. This looks like a recipe for disaster. The Minority in parliament say it is ?job for the boys.? Some brilliant minds that have waded into the issue have questioned the wisdom behind this additional list especially in a time when people are being called upon to tighten their belts.

CHIEF DIRECTOR COULD DO BETTER

The bureaucratic structure of the Colonial Civil Service where one could find a hierarchical labyrinth makes any justification for additional deputy ministers silly and intellectually shallow. The work of three or four deputy Ministers in any given Ministry could be handled with relative ease by the Chief Director of that Ministry. In fact the Chief Director by his qualification is well suited to play the role of the substantive Minister but for the need to maintain the politically neutral outlook of the Civil Service, he plays a subservient role in his relationship with the Minister.

Whichever way one looks at it or one chooses to characterize it, the billion dollar question is Can Ghana?s economy really afford all these Ministers? Criticism of what I call ?the list of 53? has also reached critical mass among sections of the public because of the inclusion of certain personalities who clearly lack the qualities, qualification and expertise to be named Minister or deputy Minister but have wound up on the list precisely because of the desire of the President to please certain political friends.

A lot of people on the list of 53 cannot even hold a light to the face of Kwesi Nduom, Nana Akufo-Addo, John Mahama, Ekwow Spio-Garbrah etc.

While I would not allow myself to be drawn into mentioning names, I know for a fact that one person on the list managed to get there because of his father?s position on the National Executive Committee of the NPP.

I worked with this individual at the Ghanaian Chronicle some years back. That is all the hint I will proffer at this point.

BIG GOVERNMENT=BIG SPENDING

Big government equals big spending, waste of government revenue, which invariably works into higher deficit and ultimately snowballs into higher taxes on the already highly taxed working class. Try to think of where the government would find the money to cater for 11 additional ministers whose position (if cleared by Parliament) would guarantee them free accommodation, free transportation (free petrol coupons), free access to public utilities (electricity, water and telephone) among other benefits.

It is definitely coming from our pockets. Another name for that if you need to be jolted is-more taxes. All over the world countries are shedding the enormous and oft-times over-bearing, financially draining, non-performing big governments in order to save money for national development.

This has been the marching orders for nations that have conscripted to serve in the war against big governments.

Among the surfeit of reasons behind the unprecedented surge of the United States economy in the late 1990?s was due in part to the close collaboration between the Clinton administration and the Republican controlled Congress to get rid of the budget deficit which stood at several billions of dollars. As in the case of other nations, the bi-partisan effort made reducing big government one of its prized targets. History has shown that they were dead on target.

Spurred on by a swell amount of goodwill and support from both sides, it identified several programs that needed to be cut from the system to make the system, prudent, self-sustaining and self-sufficient.

CONSTITUTIONAL CATCH-22

If the Kufuor administration would be honest to itself it would appreciate the fact that constitutional provisions are mostly interpreted in either a broad fashion or in a narrow manner. The government had a choice to opt for a broader interpretation of the constitution- to please party members and reward political patrons or a narrow construal or reading of the constitution in order to cut government expenditure.

Sadly it chose the former.

I doubt if Ghana were a corporate entity and President Kufuor was hired as its Chief Executive Officer (CEO), political patronage or the inordinate desire to reward close associates without considering merit would be his litmus test in hiring people on his staff. I really doubt that. As it stands now it appears that almost 50 percent of those on the list are there not mainly by virtue of merit but are there on the basis of politics.

In spite of the notable tributes one could pay President Kufuor in terms of his stewardship of our dear country Ghana, ?the list of 53? is definitely one of the most condescending actions of his administration and definitely a minus for him on my scorecard.

Our economy has been stretched to its very elastic limits and to further burden it by shoring up the ranks of the executive arm of government is as absurd as it can get.

This is not cool, Mr. President.