Appoint efficient, experienced ministers — Kwadwo Mpiani
A former Chief of Staff, Kwadwo Mpiani, has asked President John Dramani Mahama not to succumb to party pressure to appoint ministers who are inexperienced and hence cannot function effectively.
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Adding his voice to the debate on the size of President Mahama’s government on MultiTV’s current affairs programme, PM Express, he said that it was not how big or lean the size of a government was that was relevant but its efficiency. This, he said, should be of utmost importance.
For him, a minister’s ability to perform coupled with his or her experience should count.
‘’Someone will come straight from the university and is made a minister. Even in a private business no one will employ a fresh graduate to head the business because experience is required,’’ he stated.
He added that although the size of the current government was big, it could be reduced and still record efficiencies.
‘’We can go down on the number of deputies and have effective substantive ministers. Some ministries do not need deputies, because some deputies are mostly redundant, we can ask if regional ministries need deputies at all. Ministries like that of education can have deputies because it is a large sector,” he opined.
Mr Mpiani posited that some deputies were virtually holidaying because main ministers did not assign work for them and that had given room for redundancies.
A Political Science lecturer, Dr Ziblim Iddi, also speaking on the show called for pre-screening before appointment to eliminate inefficiencies.
He added that appointed ministers must have sound minds, appreciate legislature and also have the ability to debate on issues as stated in the Constitution.
‘’The constitution has given us a guide and that must be followed; unfortunately it has not provided a number for sector ministers though a minimum of 10 maximum ceiling of 19 has been given for cabinet,’ he stated.’
Dr Iddi suggested that civil society groups should unite to bring together past chiefs of staff to bring their experience to bear on building governments as far as the size was concerned.
A policy analyst, Mr Atik Mohammed, also registered his disappointment over the last appointment of 26 deputy ministers by the President, adding that inexperienced ministers could not learn from substantive ministers who were also learning on the job.
He insisted that President Mahama’s government was big, since ‘’operationally you do not need about 86 ministers to run a government that is supposed to superintend over 25 million people. It does not make sense’’.
Mr Mohammed also called on the President not to only satisfy ethnic and regional balances in his appointments.
‘’Efficiency of the appointees is very critical, you do not need three people occupying ministerial positions and doing virtually the same thing, you do not need numbers to ensure efficiency. Politicians must stop appointing people based on personal interests,’ he added’.