The Minority in Parliament has slammed President Akufo-Addo for the appointments he has so far sent to the House for consideration and approval.
Addressing a press conference on Friday, January 22, 2021, Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu described the appointments as a recycled list that contains no new hope.
He said the appointments made lacks gender and regional balance.
He noted that the list submitted reminds them that Ghana has moved back to 1997.
He said he does not want to believe that the President lacks the courage to reshuffle.
‘The President appears not ready to reshuffle and that was something that played out in his first term and the list of appointees for his new government has shown that he lacks the political will despite the opportunity for a new government’, he added.
The country he said has come far and the ministers appointed should not feel comfortable in their positions.
He said what struck them the most was the ambiguous creation of the new Ministry of Public Enterprises, adding, they will interrogate it at the Appointments Committee level.
Haruna Iddrisu added that the President in his first term brought legislation to parliament where he put all state enterprises under the new law and one would have thought he would have used the rendition of that law.
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has announced he will appoint only 85 ministers for his second term compared to the 126 who had worked within his first term.
Per the new arrangements, the President says he will not appoint deputy regional ministers.
Seven ministries, namely Aviation, Business Development, Inner City and Zongo Development, Monitoring and Evaluation, Planning, Regional Re-organisation and Development, and the Special Development Initiatives have been realigned.
The Office of the Senior Minister has also been abolished.
Also, the President has appointed a Minister in Charge of Public Enterprises, who will be operating directly under the Office of the President and not a Ministry.
The Minister will oversee a major restructuring of the entire state-owned enterprises’ sector to improve productivity, the statement added.
Meanwhile, the Inner City and Zongo Development Ministry will be brought under the Office of President with a coordinator appointed to supervise.
Aside from that, the President has also appointed a Minister of State who will be assigned to the Ministry of Works and Housing in addition to the substantive minister.
The Minister of State is expected to give special focus to the critical issue of affordable, and mass housing.
In all, the President will appoint 30 Ministers, and 16 regional ministers bringing the total number of ministers to 46 of which 8 are women.
Six would be for Ministerial positions and 2 for the regions.
A new Minister for Energy will be appointed and assisted by deputies.
The statement issued from the presidency said the activities of the Special Development Initiatives and Monitoring and Evaluation would be coordinated from the Presidency.
The Aviation Ministry is to be merged with the Transport Ministry whereas the Business Development Ministry would be added to that of the Trade and Industry.
Activities of the Planning Ministry would go to the Finance Ministry.
By: Rainbowradioonline.com
