President Akufo-Addo has rejected claims that his appointment of a Minister of State for Public Procurement, is superfluous, since the country already has a Public Procurement Authority to dealt with government’s procurement issues.
According to him, the two will play separate important roles in his government, and so do not represent the creation of a parallel civil service as asserted by some Ghanaians.
Nana Akufo-Addo has in the last few days come under public criticism for appointing a total of 110 ministers for his government- the largest in Ghana’s history.
He has also been accused of creating a ‘parallel civil service’ by his appointment of ministers in charge of specific activities already handled by some state departments and agencies.
After naming the deputy majority leader and member of parliament for Dome-Kwabenya constituency, Adwoa Sarfo as a Minister of State at the Presidency in charge of Public Procurement, some civil society groups have suggested that the role will be in conflict with the undertakings of the Public Procurement Authority (PPA).
But in an interview with GTV and the Daily Graphic, President Akufo-Addo said they will serve separate roles.
He added that the creation of the ministerial portfolio was necessary because of the country’s “traumatic experience” with public procurement over the last few years.
“For the purpose of where we are now in Ghana, where we’ve gone through a traumatic experience with public procurement, it is necessary for us to focus on it as an area of special concerns. The minister is not coming to take over the job of the public procurement authority,” Akufo-Addo said.
He explained that the minister will help him understand and take decisions on public procurement contracts.
“I wanted a minister here, somebody familiar with the process of public procurement whose duty will be to keep me fully engaged all the time on what is going on. And therefore being able at any stage to alert me if she sees there is something not aright in that system,” the president said.
Akufo-Addo has also justified the need for him to appoint 110 ministers to serve in his government.
According to him, the prevailing economic situation of the country required that he assembled the best brains he had to help him govern the country.
He has further rubbished arguments that the large size of his government will affect the public purse, hence defeating his pre-election pledge to protect the public purse.
He said most of his ministers who have been drawn from parliament will receive just a little more than they would have earned as parliamentarians hence the cost impact on the national coffers will only be marginal.
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