Akufo-Addo to announce his ministers and government officials this week
There is growing anxiety, especially within the circles of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) over persons expected to be appointed to constitute the second-term government of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.
With the NPP having a slim majority in Parliament and the constitutional requirement on the President to appoint majority of his ministers from the House, the names and structure of President Akufo-Addo’s second term government has been quite difficult to predict.
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The President was sworn in eleven days ago to begin a second four year term in office but the Jubilee House is yet to make any official announcement on the composition of the new administration.
Names of key appointments such as the Chief of Staff, deputy Chief(s) of Staff, and other top ministerial positions circulating in the media are, at the moment, nothing but mere speculations.
Reports suggest that the ministers in the previous administration have been directed by President Akufo-Addo to act as caretaker ministers until substantive ministers are appointed.
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Akufo-Addo to announce his ministers and government officials this week
However, the caretakers are not supposed to make policy decisions.
The Jubilee House is expected to begin the process of releasing the list of government officials and ministers appointed by the President this week to put to bed, the rumors and speculations.
President Akufo-Addo, a few days after his declaration as President-elect in the 2016 Presidential Election, released the names of his Chief of Staff and two deputy Chiefs of Staff among other key positions in his administration.
After his inauguration on January 7, 2016, the President, in a series of press conferences at the Jubilee House, announced his ministers and presented their names to the Seventh Parliament for vetting and approval in record time.
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President Akufo-Addo made over 120 ministerial appointments and, on many occasions, justified his decision. He introduced ministries such as the Zongo and Inner City Development, Aviation, Business Development, Regional Reorganisation and Development which supervised the creation of six new regions, Monitoring and Evaluation, Planning, among others.
Despite criticisms over the size of his government, the President believed certain ministries were needed to give focus to his priority projects.
It was quite obvious that the President preferred a flat governance structure where several ministers were appointed to report directly from the ground to him, rather than a tall structure where few ministers had several subordinates (departments and agencies) who report to them.
The number of ministers were expected to help the President to achieve the goals and objectives outlined in his Coordinated Programme of Economic and Social Development Policy presented to the previous Parliament in October 2017.
Although many of them were Members of Parliament, they were given an onerous responsibility of assisting the Executive to implement a number of strategies, policies and programmes aimed at creating opportunity for all Ghanaians, safeguarding the natural environment and ensuring a resilient environment, and maintaining a stable, united and safe country.
The programmes and policies, which led to the introduction of flagship programmes such as the One District One Factory, Planting for Food and Jobs, One Village One Dam, Free Senior High School, electronic payment systems, a national database using a National Identification System, among others, led to the re-election of President Akufo-Addo in the December 2020 Presidential Election.
However, his party, the NPP, lost its control in Parliament with many of his ministers who were Members of Parliament losing their seats to the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC).
Source: www.spotonnews.net
