998 staff: We need a law to regulate staffing of government machinery - Foh-Amoaning

Senior law lecturer at the Ghana School of Law Moses Foh-Amoaning has highlighted the need for a legislation that clearly spells out the maximum and minimum number of workers needed at the Jubilee House for every government.

President Akufo-Addo in compliance with Section 11 of the Presidential Office Act, 1993 (Act 463), which requires the President to submit annually to Parliament, a report on the staffing position of the Office of the President, submitted a list of 998 people containing names of all workers at the Jubilee House. The list was met with mixed reactions from the public, majority of Ghanaians expressing worry over the implications of the figure on the public purse.

In view of this Mr. Foh-Amoaning speaking to Paul Adom-Otchere on Metro TVs Good Evening Ghana said the efficiency of these persons and their relationship with the executive and legislative arms of government should be the focus of discussions. He emphasized the need for a legal framework to help draw a line between the minimum and the maximum number of people needed at the Jubilee House.

“It is time that from a very broad perspective we look at a law that regulates the number of people that the government coming in can take. I am all for taking a more comprehensive look at the government machinery than numbers, the positions, and their relationship with the executive and the legislature, and their accountability and to the legislative arm of government. I think that should all be ironed out so that we all know going forward, the lower limit and the upper limit so we wouldn’t be shouting anymore,” he said .



He suggested that since the President has said he is in a hurry to fulfil most of his campaign promises, it would have been efficacious if the workers were recruited based on competence instead of numbers.

“In terms of the efficiency, if the numbers had been churned out properly and demarcated, civil servants who the government inherited and the new ones that they had added and the reason why they had added those numbers would have made a lot of sense in terms of efficiency because it is obvious that this government wants to develop the country at a quicker pace. The President says he does not have too much time and there are soo many projects that are being done and so if that allocation had been done well then it would have been easier for Ghanaians to manage,” he explained.

He further argued that increase in numbers could be based on the fact that most of the civil servants inherited by the government were politically attached to the previous government and hence may not be willing to help the sitting government execute their projects.

“In other countries when a government takes over, it has got its own political drive, its own political philosophy and so if it sees that the civil service and they are the machinery , if they are not prepared to play ball because maybe a majority of them belong to the previous government, then look he got no time, he’s got to deliver so you will find ways and means of providing room for the people who can help him to deliver his policies and it is mandatory because that is why he is been voted,” he mentioned.

He then advised that, ”we should develop a framework that ensures that when we vote for the president, we equip him with the capacity to deliver and if in delivering he needs to get a certain minimum of maximum number of people, let’s give him that capacity to deliver so if he doesn’t deliver there will be no excuse.”