An economist and political risk analyst, Dr Theo Acheampong, has expressed the need for a reduction in the number of core ministers in government.

According to him, the reduction of ministers in government’s cabinet is feasible and there is nothing to lose if the move is made. He indicated that the evidence shows that even with the large number of ministers that governments have had in the major part of the 4^th republic, “we have not been able to deliver the development” gains.

Dr Acheampong revealed that most often, a lot of largesse are given to these ministers coupled with “all the perks” and the number keeps getting bigger. He lamented that the size of government, however, is not translating into developmental outcomes because the space is too crowded and so many people are trying to do the very same thing.

“So, issues of efficiency, efficacy and of value for money often gets missing in that debate. So, I believe we can substantially reduce the number of core ministers in the country. We’ve been playing around with some numbers but I think between twenty and thirty is doable, not including your kind of regional ministers and we don’t even need many of these so-called deputy ministers [as] some ministries will have two to three. We can scrap a number of them and get the chief directors of the ministries or what we call permanent secretaries doing the bigger part of the work.”
Dr Theo Acheampong

Commenting on the Majority Leader, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu’s call for a cut in the number of ministers to nineteen, Dr Acheampong highlighted that he was making reference to that on the basis of the constitutional provisions. He explained that the constitution in a sense, “mandates a cabinet and a cabinet made up of about nineteen” ministers.

The political risk analyst noted that he has overtime seen people interpret that to mean that ideally, “we really need nineteen ministers” in the country and nothing more.

Reduction in ministers is a risk worth taking

On his part, Dr John Osae Kwapong, a CDD Fellow, emphasized that reducing the number of ministers in the country is a “risk worth taking”. He stated that throughout the course of the 4^th republic, there’s been quite a number of conversations about the size of government and he reckons that conversation has not been just about the size of government alone but it’s also been about the cost of the size of government.

“So, whenever the conversation comes up about are we able to trim down the size of government, it’s always looked at primarily as a cost-saving mechanism and then secondly as an issue of efficiency. Because, again, it’s government delivering the extent to which it can deliver based upon the size of government.”
Dr John Osae Kwapong

Dr Kwapong expressed that the size of government as measured by the number of ministers in a given administration does not necessarily correspond to the delivery of key social and economic growth. He indicated that the number of ministers recommended by the majority leader is quite an interesting one, particularly because his argument is that it is those nineteen who are cabinet ministers and are at the center of core policy decision-making.

“So, when you take away that core team responsible for making policy decisions, then what you are left with now is administrative people who get to implement those policies.”
Dr John Osae Kwapong