There has been a lot of talks about the need for Ghana to have a thin Government. Many have argued for us to comply with Article 76 to bring the number of Ministers in the cabinet to a maximum of 19.
Over the years, successive governments have not been able to meet this requirement, stricto senso. Consequently, some Ministers, even heading ministries have been taken as non-cabinet ministers. I do not think that it is worth creating any ministry for which its minister should not substantively sit in cabinet.
Therefore, all ministers heading ministries must necessarily be cabinet ministers. I believe this is what the drafters of our Republican Constitution contemplated.
This is why it is argued that we must restructure our Executive Architecture to have maximum of 19 ministries. In the face of the increasing call for expenditure rationalization as part of efforts to bring Ghana to debt sustainability levels and to communicate to the Ghanaian people that government is ready to cut size of government, the following 19 Ministries can be suggested:
1. Ministry of Finance and Development Planning* (1 minister, 1 minister of state, 2 deputies)
2. Ministry of Health* (1 minister, 2 deputies)
3. Ministry of Education and Technology Development (1 minister, 2 deputy ministers, 1 minister of state for Science Technology & Innovation (STI)
4. Ministry of Foreign Affairs (1 minister and 1 deputy)
5. Ministry of Defence (1 minister and 1 deputy)
6. Ministry of Interior/home affairs ( minister and 1 dep)
7. Ministry of Roads (1 minister and 1 deputy )
8. Ministry of Energy (1 minister and 1 deputy)
9. Ministry of Justice (1 minister and 1 deputy)
10. Ministry of Local Government and Social Protection* (decentralize gender and social protection policies to districts including interventions like school feeding). (1 Minister, 1 Deputy and 1 minister of state for gender and social protection)
11. Ministry of Agric and Food Security (MoFA and fisheries merged together; 1 minister, 1 deputy and 1 minister of state for fisheries)
12. Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources (1 minister and 2 deputies)
13. Ministry of Environment, Water Resources and Sanitation* (1 minister and 1 deputy )
14. Ministry of Communication and digitalization (1 minister and 1 deputy)
15. Ministry of Transport (1 Minister and 1 deputy)
16. Ministry of Trade and Industry (1 minister and 2 deputies)
17. Ministry of Built Environment (Works and housing sounds archaic) (1 minister and 1 deputy)
18. Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Religious Affairs (1 Minister, q deputy and 1 minister of state for tourism development)
19. Ministry of Employment, Pension and Labour affairs (1 minister and 1 deputy)
In this model
Total Ministers = 19
Total ministers of state = 5
Total deputy ministers = 24
This totals 48
Even when the President wants to stretch the appointments by adding 19 more deputies and ministers of State, (for strategic anchorage of certain ministries and portfolios) the maximum should be 65.
The implication of this model is that a strong public service, especially performance of directorates of the ministries must be top notch. It means ministers may not have the luxury of many deputies and may need to be on top of their jobs and it means that ministries must focus more strongly on policy and devolve implementation to Agencies.
I hope we can begin to experiment such a model to cut the size of Government down without compromising the quality of Executive performance.
🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽God Bless our dear Country and Make Us Great and Strong
Dr. Emmanuel Marfo (Oforikrom MP)
Call: 0244627274
