The Agbogbomefia of the Asogli State, Togbe Afede XIV, has lashed out at government for the ballooning government size in 2017.
He wrote that the large size in government has not been any impactful, let alone produced the promised outcome.
“The large increase in the number of ministries and appointees in 2017 was, invariably a waste, because it did not make any impact, let alone produce the promised outcomes,” Togbe Afede wrote in a piece titled: ‘Our Self-Inflicted Monumental Economic Crisis’.
He added: “Political motivations dictated reckless increases in the size of our parliament, with little or no thought about the extra costs – salaries, multiple ex-gratia payments, Common Fund allocations, etc., etc.”
When the size of his government came up for scrutiny in 2019, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo said the magnitude of work required the number of appointees to his government.
“I still stand by the fact that the numbers were necessary for the work which we have done,” he responded.
Togbe Afede, a member of the immediate past Council of State, also listed some of the wasteful expenditure since this government assumed the reins of power.
“Payment to directors and employees of non-existent Keta Port, monies lost in the failed award of ECG to PDS, abandoned projects, sale of government vehicles and their replacement after four years or less, and expenditure on new voters registration, have been wasteful.
“Similarly wasteful have been payment of end-of-service benefits and all manner of allowances and perks to some state employees, huge convoys, unnecessary expensive travel for mostly unproductive seminars and conferences (e.g., the reported 322 people who attended the recent UN Climate Change Conference in Egypt).”