Minister of Information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah has offered a response to the issue surround what many have described as ‘worrying’ delay in the appointment and vetting of Deputy Ministers, Boards, Chief Executives Officers and so forth.
Following the re-election of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo into office, Ghanaians had high expectation that since he was continuing as President, the appointment of certain persons to occupy the aforementioned position would have been faster that it had turned out.
Many people including political communicators have openly voiced out their displeasure about the delay in the appointment and vetting of Deputy Ministers and explained that the delay continue to affect the development agenda of the government and also its impacts on the economic is a negative one.
Some have explained how the absence of substantive key officers in some of the state institutions have adversely affect the day-to-day running of those institutions and have therefore called on the President to expedite those appointments. They wondered what could have delayed those appointments which would have seen the Akufo-Addo led-government fully formed.
The situation has left many Ghanaians wondering if the President is actually committed to fulfilling the promises he made to Ghanaians for which they voted him into power for the second time in the December 7, 2020 general election.
Reacting to the concerns raised by Ghanaians, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah in an interview with an Accra based radio station, noted that President Akufo-Addo hasn’t gone to sleep over his responsibilities and added that, although his government setup has delayed, the President is working hard to deliver on his promises to Ghanaians.
According to the Information Minister, the delay is a result of some bottlenecks that characterized the inception of the second-term administration of the President.
”Unlike the 2016 election, the 2020 election started off with a contestation and therefore even the whole spirit around which government was formed was a bit different in this second term. In the first term, there was very less apprehension. Parliament was very speedy in approving the President’s Ministers and therefore that also gave room for the quick approval of Deputy Ministers, formation of Boards, Chief Executive Officers etc. In this particular instance, you will notice that the kind of cooperation was a bit different from the first. Nonetheless, the President has got his Ministers in place”, Oppong Nkrumah remarked during the radio interview.
He intimated that, for the process to be expedited despite these challenges, Parliament Akufo-Addo has vested ”residual powers in Speaker to be able to forward or ferry the President’s request to the Appointments Committee even during the recess. That hasn’t necessarily been completed and so you haven’t seen the vetting take place. But I do know that the President has clearly penned-down list of who he wants to put in what position to deliver and as quickly that as Parliament gets the next level out of the way, he will complete the appointment of Deputy Ministers and consequently Boards and Chief Executives”.
”The process for the appointment of the Municipal and District Chief Executives is also just commencing. The President has in place the framework to assess the work of those who worked in the first term and based on that have an opportunity to make a decision on the second term. In 2017, there were no carry-over MMDCEs from his own administration per se, so that was a clean slate and therefore easier to deal with. It’s not exactly the same at this time round,” he mentioned in line with providing answers to the questions that question raised by Ghanaians.
In an answer to a question as to when specifically the formation of government was going to be complete, Oppong Nkrumah noted that it doesn’t lie in the hands of the Executive to give a deadline, nonetheless, he is very optimistic it will soon be done.
“Parliament will decide, for example, how long it will take. When it will complete it, when it will put before the House and all of those processes. So, it is not something for the Executive alone to give a deadline that, by this time, I would have finished. No, you’ve got to do it in consultation with the other arms of government,” he explained and acknowledged the impact of the delay on Ghana’s economic progress but reposed confidence in the President not to fail Ghanaians.
“Admittedly, it chips a bit at how much we would have wanted to do by now as an administration but I guess, it’s not too far off the template or the expected timelines and so though you can agree that it will have chipped from how much work we would have wanted to do within this period, we can also be optimistic that, as quickly as possible, we can finish with this exercise so that full throttle, government can deliver on its commitments,” he noted bringing the interview to an end.
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