The minority in parliament has rejected the president’s ministerial nominees and asked for a merger of four ministries.
The NDC MPs are calling for the merging of some ministries as they reject the nomination, which they term as a means to cut down costs due to the country’s recent economic crisis.
The minority in parliament wants the ministry of information to be combined with the ministry of communications, railway development to be combined with the ministry of transportation, chieftaincy and religious affairs to be merged with tourism and the creative arts, and sanitation and water resources to be merged with local government.
In their release, they claim the government has made the life of citizens unbearable, which is their reason for calling for a reduction of the ministers.
“We in the minority wish to make it clear that we remain committed to ensuring greater scrutiny and will spare no effort to protect the public purse. In line with this, we are taking part in the vetting process so that, at the very minimum, we can scrutinize the president's decision in bringing up those nominees. However, the minority will not subscribe to a consensus vote at the level of the Appointments Committee. This will ensure that the matter is brought before the full House for a vote to be taken in secret,” the statement revealed.
The minority in parliament are calling for the following
“The immediate reduction in the number of Ministers from the current 86 to 65. The merger of ministries, the immediate reduction in the number of political appointees at the Office of the President. Immediate scrapping of all amorphous creations and waste-pipe, job-for-the-boys’ appointments since the assumption of office of President Akufo Addo in 2017. The work of those undefined, amorphous creations must revert to established entities in the civil and public sectors that perform similar, if not the same, functions," the release stated.
A couple of weeks ago, the President announced names of nominees for Ministerial appointments. The vetting commenced this morning.