Former Attorney-General and Minister of Justice and NPP Presidential aspirant, Hon. Joe Ghartey has stated that he will appoint 60 Ministers when elected as President of Ghana.
He made this known in an interview with Umara Sanda on Citi FM’s Eyewitness News.
He said emphatically that the total number of Ministers in his government would not exceed 60, which would include 19 Cabinet Ministers and 16 Regional Ministers.
This was in response to a question which described President Akufo-Addo’s first-term government of 111 Ministers as bloated.
Hon. Ghartey disagreed with claims that the Akufo-Addo government was bloated, said in the first term, President Akufo-Addo’s philosophy of the size of government led to 9% growth of the economy by the end of his first term.
He explained further that when he was Attorney-General in President Kufuor’s era he asked President Kufuor why he was creating a Ministry of Aviation when he was asked to draft the legal document that would create the new Ministry.
He said the ex-President answered by explaining that one of the ways a government can focus on a particular sector was to isolate the sector and create a Ministry with someone in charge.
Hon. Ghartey stated that clearly, this was what President Akufo-Addo had in mind when for example he created the Ministry of Railways Development and had it remained as part of the Ministry of Transport it may not have received the attention it is receiving under President Akufo-Addo.
The former 2nd Deputy Speaker of Parliament added that since independence no regime had seen so much construction in the railway sector with over 200kms currently under construction.
However, the Presidential Aspirant stressed that he had a different philosophy and would have a much smaller size of government because of current circumstances.
Source: Modern Ghana
