[ 2017-03-16 ]

Minister for Information, Mustapha Hamid

More ministers will protect state coffers – Mustapha Hamid
The Minister for Information has shot down
arguments that President Akufo-Addo’s huge
government size will take a toll on the nation’s
coffers.

“…If you need more hands to ensure that we are
protecting bigger money, you might do so because
it’s better,” he argued. His comment comes
after the backlash against the President for
appointing 54 more substantive and deputy
ministers on Wednesday, bringing the total number
to 110.

Critics of the government including the opposition
National Democratic Congress and the People’s
National Convention, have argued that it is sheer
waste of resources especially when the government
says the country is almost broke.

Speaking on the Citi Breakfast Show, Mustapha
Hamid stressed the end result is what matters.
“We all agree that we ought to find ways of
protecting the public purse and everybody agrees
that in Africa the biggest problem that we face as
a continent is not because we don’t have
resources, often times it’s because of
corruption. We lose a lot of money to corruption.


And we all agree again that the biggest spot of
our loss of money is through dubious procurement
practices.” Mr. Hamid further explained that,
due to the absence of a Procurement Minister in
previous times, there were a number of ministers
of state who force the Procurement Authority into
acceding to their demands hence causing the nation
to “lose billions of cedis in contracts.”

He also defended the new deputy ministerial
appointments to the Attorney General’s
department. “If you have two ministers at the
Attorney General’s department who would sign off
monies like we signed for people like Woyome,
versus having three ministers who would have a
better scrutiny. Look at all the 43 power purchase
agreements that we have said that we are having to
review.

So if you need more hands to ensure that we are
protecting bigger money, you might do because
it’s better,” the minister added.

Meanwhile, the General Secretary of the opposition
National Democratic Congress (NDC), Johnson Asiedu
Nketiah, has described as senseless the
justification of President Akufo-Addo’s 110
ministerial appointments.

“…The argument that the economy is so
destroyed that they need a bigger team to do work
also doesn’t make sense,” he added.

Source - citifmonline.com

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