DOWNSIZING OF MINISTERS: ANY BENEFITS? (MIRROR, PAGE 31)

MR KWESI NUNOO, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, NUMAT
PHARMACY LIMITED

In the first place we have two sides of the issue. One, it is good to reduce the number of the government ministries, since it will help reduce government expenditure.
But this will likely lead to misplacement of skills and technical know-how when people are sent from one ministry to another.
They do not want us to talk about unemployment, which the reduction of ministries will create, but by all means there would be unemployment as people are likely to resign or leave their reassigned ministries due to lack of job satisfaction.
When unemployment sets in the country’s tax regime will suffer and this is likely to affect effective governance.
The second side, as they rightly said, is that when the number of the government ministries are reduced it will help reduce government expenditure.
But if two or three ministries are merged, and staff are reassigned to other ministries then you are back to square one, since you are going to pay the same salaries to the same number of workers at the end of the month.
On both sides, I will say that at the end of it all the reduction of the ministries will have no meaningful effect because the government will have to provide additional human and other resources to make the ministries run effectively no matter the level at which the ministries are downsized.

MR A.M.B. IBN HASSAN, PRESIDENT,
FEDERATION
OF YOUTH
ASSOCIATIONS OF GHANA
As far as I am concerned it is a laudable idea, since the intention is to reduce overspending by the government.
Reducing the number per se is not what matters, but how it would improve the national economy.
I have seen that reducing the number of ministries means that a lot of efforts need to be put in to ensure efficient output, i.e. the human resource needs to be strengthened and the ministries have to be well resourced to meet the challenges ahead.
I have seen that those ministries that have been removed either used to be part of previous ministries or new ones that were created by the previous regime and which did not have any direct bearing on the economy.
For instance, the Ministry of Fisheries was part of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture.
So in my opinion the government should appoint a deputy minister in charge of fisheries.
The downsizing of the numbers of the ministries may not have any significant effect if it does not reflect in the reduction of government expenditure.
Also, the reduction can promote good governance only if the existing ones are well resourced in terms of logistics and human resource.

MR KWAKU ADJEI SARFO, FINANCE AND ADMINISTRATIVE
OFFICER, GOLDEN GATE SER VICES

Economically, it is good to downsize the number of ministries, but it will work effectively if real policy guidelines are put in place as a blueprint for successive governments to follow.
Concerning the removal of the Ministry of Fisheries, it was established to pay particular attention to that sector, since until then the attention was not there as expected.
If there was a real policy guideline for the ministry when it was established, that policy guideline could be given to the Ministry of Food and Agriculture to see to it that the guidelines are faithfully followed with the merging of the two ministries.
The same thing can be done to the other ministries that have been merged such as the Aviation Ministry and others.
We have to look at the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) analysis of the ministries and their effect on good governance.
This will enable the government to resource those ministries that have been merged, since their activities are going to be enormous.
MS ISABELLA
PLAYMAN, ASSISTANT WESTERN REGIONAL CO-ORDINATOR, SAINT JOHN AMBULANCE

If they are left as they are things will move faster.
The mere decrease in numbers will not auger well for the country, and I think it will not promote good governance in the country.
The reduction of the ministries is not necessary, since during the previous regime the ministries were provided with the required resources to work effectively so the present government should do the same.
For instance, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government created the Ministry of Fisheries to give more attention to that sector, since until then there was not much attention given to fisheries.
Now that the National Democratic Congress (NDC) government has assumed power, it should have maintained the ministry and improved on the activities of the fishermen and fishmongers.
Downsizing the ministries will not necessary reduce cost, since the staff will be reassigned to other ministries and will need more resources and also paid their monthly salaries.

MR KOFI NYAMEKYE ARTHUR, WESTERN REGIONAL PRESIDENT OF THE GHANA BAR ASSOCIATION (GBA)

I want to believe that before any government appoints ministers there are countless factors that are considered.
One, the demography of the country, such as the population density.
Two, the government will have to ask itself whether the ministry is important or there is the need for it.
Three, the government will even have to consider the size of the country because there are huge countries with small population, example is Namibia which is a huge country with small population.
These and other factors influence the appointment of ministers.
So let us come to Ghana and apply the same considerations to our own situation.
Currently, we are not even sure of our population, which is approximately 22 million, and we do not have to forget that running a government is an expensive business.
Now, look at a population of 22 million and compare it to the size of Ghana; we need a reasonably small ministerial appointments.
One, we don’t have adequate resources to effectively run numerous ministries and our tax system is also very bad.
Seriously, we are not in control of our own resources so our monetary returns to the country is such that we can’t maintain a lot of ministries, we are only 22 million.
In the United Kingdom they have less than 23 ministries with a population of about 57 million. We have to seriously learn from more experienced, well-resourced and well-governed nations and stop the situation where ministries are created just to reward party faithful and in the end you find out that there are duplications of existing ministries.
Yes, l agree that the government should reduce the number of ministries; l am also disappointed because the government must have reduced the number of ministries to about 17.
Good governance has nothing to do with the number of government ministries.