From Eric’s Diary: JM’s 26 ‘ministries’ and 29 presidential office staff

It’s a new year and Ghanaians have a brand-new-secondhand president- H.E. John Dramani Mahama (JM). The victory of JM has, indeed, come again.

It has come with an overwhelming goodwill. Not just from the people of Ghana. Many other African leaders too. Their level of participation in JM’s inauguration was a sight to behold. Undoubtedly, JM’s return is a welcome relief from the suffocating Akufo-Addo administration.

Well, he has hit the ground running and putting his words into action- Setting up Operation Recover All Loot (ORAL) Committee, Constitution Review Committee established and National Economic Dialogue and Education Conference in the offing.

In my previous article dated 14th December, 2024 titled, “Why floating voters taught the NPP a bitter lesson on December 7”, I wrote:

“…I strongly believe that working with 20 cabinet ministers and 16 regional ministers will assure the floating voters, who actually made the second coming of JM possible, that he really meant it when he said in his acceptance speech that, “…the people of Ghana have chosen us to represent their wishes and best interest.”

JM’s 26 ‘ministries’

Against this backdrop, the news that JM has reduced the number of ministries from 30 to 23 did not land well in my ears. Why not my 20? I asked.

The answer is in the manner the 23 ministries have been structured per Executive Instrument (E.I) 1 dated 9^th January, 2025. They are:

1. Ministry of Finance;
2. Ministry of Health;
3. Ministry of the Interior;
4. Ministry of Defence;
5. Ministry of Education;
6. Ministry of Energy and Green Transition;
7. Ministry of Roads and Highways;
8. Ministry of Transport;
9. Ministry of Sports and Recreation;
10. Office of Attorney-General and Ministry of Justice;
11. Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources;
12. Ministry of Local Government, Chieftaincy and Religious Affairs;
13. Ministry of Foreign Affairs;
14. Ministry of Communication, Digital Technology and Innovations;
15. Ministry of Environment, Science and Technology,
16. Ministry of Youth Development and Empowerment,
17. Ministry of Works, Housing and Water Resources;
18. Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection;
19. Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts,
20. Ministry of Labour, Jobs and Employment;
21. Ministry of Food and Agriculture;
22. Ministry of Fisheries and Aquaculture; and
23. Ministry of Trade, Agribusiness and Industry.

 

My contention is that the above list can easily be collapsed into 20 by recategorizing three ministries as follows:

1. Ministry of Transport, Roads and Highways
2. Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Aquaculture
3. Ministry of Environment, Land and Natural Resources

Instead, in a letter dated 21^st January 2025 and signed by the Ag. Government Spokesperson, Mr Felix Kwakye Ofosu, three more ‘ministries’ were added. I put the word ministries in single quotes because the three additional ministers do not have physical structures to superintend over like the traditional ministries. Nonetheless, their status is equivalent to the proper ministers and would draw salary accordingly. Here they are:

1. Minister of State in Charge of Special Initiatives
2. Minister of State, Government Communications
3. Minister of State, Climate Change and Sustainability

The summary of my point is that, H.E Mahama wants to run affairs of this country with 26 ministries instead of the E.I-announced 23. Needless to add that in listing the ministries in the E.I., instead of numbers or roman numerals to make for easy calculation of the totals, alphabets were used. Plus, in the Mr Ofosu-signed letter, the list was not numbered at all.

The 29 Presidential Office staff

I can also not lose sight of the 20 high-profile persons of ministerial ranking who have been appointed in various capacities to the Office of the President and the 10 who have been assigned to the Office of the Vice President.

I say so because Section 6 of the Presidential Office Act, 1993 (Act 463) which stipulates their “Other Conditions of office” reads, “Presidential staff shall be entitled to such salaries, allowances, facilities and privileges as shall be determined under Article 71 of the Constitution.”

For the avoidance of doubt, Article 71 (2) covers “The salaries and allowances payable, and the facilities available, to the President, the Vice-President, the chairman and the other members of the Council of State; Ministers of State and Deputy Ministers, being expenditure charged on the Consolidated Fund…”

And they are entitled to ex-gratia per Article 71 (3) “For the purposes of this article, and except as otherwise provided in this Constitution, “salaries” includes allowances, facilities and privileges and retiring benefits or awards.”

Office of the President:

1. Julius Debrah – Chief of Staff, 2. Professor Kwaku Danso-Boafo – Cabinet Secretary, 3. Stan Dogbe – Deputy Chief of Staff, 4. Nana Oye Bampoe – Deputy Chief of Staff, 5. Valerie Sawyerr – Senior Presidential Adviser, Governmental Affairs, 6. Larry Gbevlo Lartey – Special Envoy to the Alliance of Sahelian States, 7. Professor Francis Dodoo – Presidential Adviser, National Anti-Corruption Programme, 8. Seth Terkper – Presidential Adviser on the Economy, 9. Callistus Mahama – Secretary to the President, Prosper Douglas Bani – Head of Interim Security Taskforce, 11. Augustus Goosie Tannoh – Presidential Adviser Responsible for 24-hour Economy and Accelerated Export Development, 12. Marietta Agyeiwaa Brew – Legal Counsel to the President of Ghana, 13. DCOP Abdul-Osman Razak – National Security Coordinator, 14. Nathan Kofi Boakye (Rtd) – Director of Operations at the Presidency, 15. Charles Kipo – Director General of NIB (National Investigations Bureau formerly BNI), 16. Mrs Joyce Bawah Mogtari – Presidential Adviser & Special Aide to the President, 17. Nana Yaa Jantuah – Presidential Staffer, 18. Beatrice Annangfio – Presidential Staffer, 19. Felix Kwakye Ofosu – Ag. Presidential Spokesperson, 20. Shamima Muslim – Deputy Presidential Spokesperson

Office of the Vice President:

1. Alex Segbefia- Chief of Staff, 2. Maame Ama Pratt – Press Secretary, 3. Samuel Ofosu Ampofo as Policy Adviser, Political, 4. Mrs Alberta Graham- Head of Administration, 5. Professor Theresah Ennin- Presidential Staffer & Special Aide to the Vice President, 6. Ms. Daniella Mavis Mathias- Secretary to the Vice President, 7. Prof. Sharif Mahmud Khalid- Policy Adviser, Economic, 8. Dr. Hamza Zakaria- Policy Adviser, Economic, 9. Mansa Amoa Awuah- Policy Adviser, Finance, 10. Dr. Miriam Rahinatu Iddrisu- Policy Adviser, Social Sector.

From the foregoing, it is clear that if one adds the 16 regional ministers to the 26 ‘ministers’, the number equals 42. And the expectation is that 18 deputy ministers would be added to complete the anticipated 60 ministers.

Now, if one subtracts Felix Kwakye Ofosu’s name from the presidential staffers, because he is the Minister of State in charge of Government Communication, their number becomes 19. Then comes the 10 appointed to the Vice President’s Office.

Given that these staffers are of ministerial status in respect of their allowances and facilities as pointed out supra, if added to the mainstream ministers, then the public purse will be burdened with payment of salaries, allowances, facilities… of 89 instead of the 60 promised. Actually, 9 out of the 29 are former Ministers of State.

And Per the Prof Yaa Ntiamoa-Baidu’s Committee report, the salary of a Minister of State (Non-MP), which is the minimum, as at 2020 was GHC30,206.00 per month. This amount is very likely to increase in the coming months seeing us President Mahama is yet to set up a committee to review these emoluments.

It’s time to go

Granted that it is farfetched to consider the Chief of Staff, Secretary to the President and Cabinet Secretary as ministers. Why would you have a secretary to the President and another for Cabinet? On a daily basis what is the work load such that one of them cannot do it?

Also, why would you have two Chiefs of Staff and two Deputy Chiefs of Staff? Again, why would you have a Special Adviser on the Economy when there is a Finance Minister? Moreover, why would you have Legal Counsel to the President when there is an Attorney-General and Minister of Justice?

In addition, why would you have two persons with the title ‘Presidential staffer’? Finally, why would you have Presidential Adviser & Special Aide to the President as well as Senior Presidential Adviser, Governmental Affairs?

The question worried observers are asking is, if Ghana were your private firm, is that how you will manage it? This query reminds me of how differently one particular private sector CEO that I have worked with would use few resources to achieve maximum outcomes. We had a slogan to this effect- “Less is more.” With this motto as a guide, we indeed, got more into our pockets as salaries and yearly bonus because the few of us worked very hard to achieve the needed results.

It is for this reason that I expected JM to live his new mantra- “It will not be business as usual.” And I believe that is the expectation of the many Ghanaians who voted for him. That’s because according to Dictionary.com, the word RESET that he popularized through his election campaign means “an act or instance of setting, adjusting, or fixing something in a new or different way.”

From where I sit, I see every indication that JM is worried about the number of people he is appointing. My perception is borne out of a portion of the speech he masterfully delivered during the swearing in of the second batch of ministers on 24^th January, 2025:

“We have gathered here today to continue with the objective of forming Ghana’s leanest and most efficient government under the 4^th Republic. It was a solemn pledge I made to the people of Ghana to do so. And there are both tangible and symbolic reasons for having such a lean and efficient government. First, significant savings running into millions of Ghana cedis can be made and these funds can be channeled into meeting the felt needs of our citizens.

At the symbolic level, it reassures the nation that their resources, which we hold in trust, are not meant for expenditure on the creature comfort of a legion of government officials. Rather, these resources must go into things that matter to our people.”

This for me, is a clear indication that in his heart of hearts, JM would like to work with less than 26 ‘ministries.’ But I can understand that the pressure from party faithful who are demanding their share of the ‘booty’ cannot be ignored easily. That’s because they, in diverse ways, helped he and the party to win the election.

However, I believe there is a way that as many of them as possible can be satisfied without spending our meagre resources on the “creature comfort of a legion of government officials,” an act which no doubt would incur the wrath of Ghanaians come 2028.

Here is how- Clearly, per our constitution, JM and his vice, Prof Jane Naana Opoku-Agyemang (JANOA) are the only ones who have been guaranteed a four-year tenure. Therefore, I can bet my last pesewa that given a similar predicament, my former private sector CEO I alluded to above, would use 20 ministries to satisfy 80 deserving members of the party in four years.

All it would take is to start with 20 ministers and change each of them every year of the four years that JM will be in office. After all, the actual work of public policy proposal, formulation and implementation is carried out by the numerous technocrats and experts in the Public/Civil Service. The key role of the minister is political direction which every NDC member worth his salt can offer.

Moreover, that political direction originates, not from the incumbent minister, but cabinet. Remember that no minister can implement any policy without cabinet and or parliamentary approval.

For instance, Dr Ato Forson, Seth Terkper, Isaac Adongo and Kweku Ricketts Hagan can easily be alternated to handle the Finance Ministry within the four-year period. By so doing, the four-year salary of the finance minister will be paid to 4 persons rather than paying 2 persons (Dr Ato Forson and Seth Terkper) separate salaries for doing virtually the same job.

Strange proposition you would say, but in the private sector it is called cost cutting- anything and everything is done to achieve it.  And if JM’s Reset agenda and new mantra of “It is not going to be business as usual” is anything to go by, then something truly different must be done to honour that solemn pledge he made to the people of Ghana- “…forming Ghana’s leanest and most efficient government under the 4th Republic.”

I can hear some say, but President Akufo-Addo had many more ministers and staffers than this. My response- Akufo-Addo is history. He is gone with his statue in the Western Region without fulfilling his solemn pledge to God to build a National Cathedral. This article is about helping JM fulfil his solemn pledge to the people of Ghana. It is possible!!!

Chao – That’s goodbye in Spanish.

Let God lead: Follow Him directly, not through any human.

The writer is the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) Columnist of the Year- 2022. He is the author of two books whose contents share knowledge on how anyone desirous of writing like him can do so. Eric can be reached via email [email protected]

 

The post From Eric’s Diary: JM’s 26 ‘ministries’ and 29 presidential office staff first appeared on 3News.

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