Government is in no frame of mind to scrape special purpose Ministries that the Akufo-Addo Administration created, in spite of public view that they have now outlived their usefulness.
Information Minister, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, today told journalists that Ministries such as the ones for regional reorganization, Procurement, Business Development and Policy Evaluation are on the contrary now more needed than ever before.
According to Mr. Oppong Nkrumah, the Ministry for regional reorganization for instance is crucially needed even though the creation of the new regions, the main reason this Ministry was created, has been completed.
“They are already involved in the creation of regional infrastructure, regional coordinating councils for instance. They are also involved in other kind of infrastructure innovation that we require to bring those regions in a fasttrack approach up to the level of some of the other regions.
“So we are of the view that regional reorganization and development, yes we have finished with regional reorganization but the development task ahead of us which we are currently embarking on as funded in the 2019 budget that is being executed (makes them imperative).”
Consequently, he said government is not considering scraping them at all.
Within the category of the so called redundant Ministries, is the Ministry of Procurement, overseen by Deputy Majority Leader, Sarah Adjoa Sarfo. Hon. Adjoa Sarfo has been perceived to be only a Minister in title since her appointment given that the same NPP government has also completed the Ghana Integrated Financial Management System (GIFMIS) which is supposed to ensure transparency in public sector dealings.
Recently, when complaints broke over the alleged discriminatory award of a contract to Sir David Adjaye to construct a new chamber for Parliament and a Cathedral that government is building, the Procurement Minister said she was not sure if processes had been breached to sole source Sir David Adjaye’s company.
The debate about the usefulness of these special purpose Ministries was sparked by the Institute of Statistics, Social and Economic Research, when ISSER suggested that they be evaluated for value for money.
Prof. Peter Quartey, Head of Economics Division of ISSER has argued thus; “these Ministries have been in existence in the past three years, we are struggling with our revenue numbers. Let’s review them and see which ones are still providing value for money and which ones are not.
“So for instance, the Ministry of Policy Evaluation for instance, after evaluating all the Ministries, can they make their reports public? Can we also look at the resources used for these and let us see if there is value for money, and that is the argument.
“Three years down the line, are we getting value for money, if not do we have to merge some of them? So that we save resources?”