KB Asante: Voice From Afar column
What do all these people in the President’s office do?
I have been asked by the media and others whether the 678 employees in the President’s office are not too many and costly. My answer did not please many. I replied and still maintain that the problem is not in the numbers but what the officials and other employees do.
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There were many officials in President Nkrumah’s Flagstaff House but they had specific assignments. In fact, even President Nkrumah could not recruit anyhow.
Establishment watchdog Osa Mills would not sanction appointments outside the establishment and the Accountant-General would not release funds for salaries without an Establishment Warrant.
Officials in Nkrumah’s Flagstaff House were either seconded from the ministries or other organisations for specific tasks or appointed under the rules.
A legitimate criticism of President Nkrumah was that when established institutions did not function well or expeditiously, he established an office in Flagstaff House to discharge some of the functions of the incompetent institutions instead of insisting on expeditious and competent discharge of duties and getting the incompetent sacked.
Inexperienced presidential staff cocooned at the centre of power and ignorant of civil service practice and culture, and, therefore, not consulting and liaising with the minister and established institutions, can cause administrative inefficiency at the centre and frustrate the efforts of the President.
The evidence suggests that the President’s office is not as efficient as it should be. For example, the office claimed that there were errors in the list submitted to Parliament only to confirm later that the list of 678 was correct. Such errors do not inspire confidence in the President’s office.
Incidentally, Parliament and the people would also have been more enlightened if units with specific tasks under ‘Presidential Advisers’ were identified.
For example, my belief is that Mr P.V. Obeng is head of the National Development Planning Commission. He should be described as such and not simply as an adviser. Also, his staff should be identified in the list. Certain departments of state are placed under the President and not a ministry.
If some of the Senior Presidential Advisers are in charge of such institutions this should be stated and the functions described.
Size of institutions is important but what is more relevant is competence, efficiency and the promotion of the national interest. Coordination and consultation between ministries, the President’s office and national institutions is also important. For example, as father of the nation, the President advised us to accept the present measures to stem the fall of the cedi.
He said they were painful but necessary. He admitted they were difficult decisions but were designed to protect the integrity of the economy.
Patriots would naturally accept the President’s charge and would try to live with the measures taken, even if painful. But the opposite would happen if they find the President’s statement incorrect or the proposals flawed.
The many amendments to the Bank of Ghana’s plans do not inspire confidence in a carefully-considered plan. Did government (and it does not matter which party was then in power) not persuade Ghanaians abroad and others to bring their money into Ghana in dollars and pounds and take them out in foreign currency when required?
Were such and similar measures carefully thought through? Whether carefully considered or not, confidence in the financial regime and even government (no matter which party is in power) is undermined when policies go through an about-turn suddenly, unmindful of trust, legal and moral implications.
The President and his men should ensure that we are not confused. The many in the President’s office should have well-defined coordinated duties to ensure this.
The measures invoked to save the cedi seem to be unmindful of current rules and practices. For example, the media reported that the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority believed that it was empowered by law to demand the payment of port charges in dollars.
What do the President’s men and women in such institutions do to avoid confusion which slows down the collection of duties and harms the economy?
The President rightly promised fundamental measures to deal with the economic failures which brought down the value of the cedi. There would be incentives for increase in local production of commodities to reduce the high rate of imports. In short, the main problem of importing so much and exporting so little is to be addressed.
Also, measures will be taken to repatriate export earnings to Ghana as required by law.
All these measures will require a lot of work, consultation and major political and social decisions. They require the full attention of the President. While these issues are being addressed, others which are equally important and germane require urgent attention.
Cocoa production, for example, is falling. The reasons are known. Institutions involved in the health of cocoa plants should be made to do their work.
If the ministries and institutions are not concerned about a 40-days hold-up of cocoa exports because of strike by loaders, someone in the President’s office should act and set the ball rolling while the President is brought into the picture when necessary. The President should be assisted as in the early days of independence to move the country forward.
President Mahama is President of Ghana and not President of UNAIDS and the Lancet Commission in London. His advisers should see to it that he is in Ghana when problems erupt.
Even I represented President Nkrumah at international meetings. Why can’t a minister or presidential adviser or aide go to London to highlight and share Ghana’s successes and challenges concerning the HIV/AIDS scourge?
The issue about the President’s office is not a problem of numbers but what the incumbents do. I know what the washermen and cleaners do but I wonder what useful work is done by the top brass.
I used the word ‘top-brass’ advisedly. What would the soldiers think about arranging credit to equip the Armed Forces as the President was advised to announce? Even if it was not put in the budget estimates last November and therefore a loan had to be taken, why announce it at this time? ‘More loans?’, the discerning taxpayer will ask.
Maybe the cost of the logistics and equipment would eventually be borne by the UN through peace-keeping operations. But the timing and framing of the President’s statements are of the utmost importance.
The President’s men should be conversant with public opinion and the mood the people. They should know what he should say and when and how he should say it. Do they liaise with the ministers and chief directors and especially the Ministry of Information?
The President needs aides in his office but they should have well-defined duties and should coordinate with the appropriate ministries and institutions. The fundamental measures to save the cedi announced by the President cannot be carried out successfully by the President’s men or the Bank of Ghana alone. They require coordinated work by all the ministries and national institutions.