The Director of Communications of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) says that the approval of all appointed Ministers is an indication of the full manifestation of democracy in which the MPs voted their conscience.
Richard Ahiagbah argued that the National Democratic Congress (NDC) is fixated on fighting for the downsizing of government merely because it is patronising to the citizenry.
He said the NDC’s portrayal of government as though it is doing nothing to control the expenditure is purely political and wrong.
“Democracy in its fullness was manifested yesterday where people in my view voted their conscience.
“The NDC can think it’s a betrayal. But is it also the case that people thought it was wrong that in spite of all the interventions and the proposals government has made to cut expenditure which is carried in the budget before Parliament to say we’re doing this and that to cut expenditure, then the one fixation of the NDC which for me, is political, it is patronising to the people of Ghana to say that we want you to cut the size of government else you’re not doing anything to control expenditure. It’s just not true,” he said when speaking on JoyNews’ Newsfile on Saturday.
Mr Ahiagbah indicated that it makes sense that Article 78 of the Constitution says that the majority of the Ministers must come from parliament, in that these Ministers only earn salaries as parliamentarians.
As a result, he argued that government has done much to cut down on expenditure.
According to him, although there are some benefits attached to being a Minister, many of them choose to make a living only as Parliamentarians.
Commenting on the newly approved Ministers, he said that the president, dating from his first term has reduced the size of his government tremendously.
However, he explains that there is a mandate given to the president for which he needs a team to execute.
“From the first term till now, you will that the size of government tremendously has been reduced. This is the one time in our history where you don’t have Deputy Regional Ministers.
“So there are significant concessions made in that direction but we shouldn’t overlook the fact that there is a mandate given to the president. He needs a team to do it,” he said.
Meanwhile, Parliament has finally confirmed President Akufo-Addo’s six ministerial candidates after hours of debate and a brief suspension.
The ministers-designate were approved on Friday, March 25 amid some complaints which saw the sitting suspended for a few hours.
Following the outcome of events, the leader of the Minority caucus, Dr Ato Forson, and Former President John Mahama as well as other stalwarts of the NDC have expressed disappointment as they described the approval by some of their MPs as a betrayal.
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