The Coalition for Democratic Governance (CDG), a pressure group says Ghana is bleeding from corruption.
According to the group, the “absurd ministries with over bloated expenditure” created by the Akufo-Addo led government was draining the country of its limited resources.
The chief convener of the group, Dr Ebenezer Kofi Hayford, addressing a press conference in Accra Wednesday morning, said “Ghana is bleeding and we must stop it”.
According to him, “the over bloated expenditure of the Ministry of Special Development Initiative, for instance, was putting undue pressure on the Ghanaian taxpayer”.
He said the Ministry of Special Development Initiative, for instance, was not necessary since it performs some basic functions of other existing ministries.
Dr Hayford said for instance that the Ministry of Special Development Initiative constructing classroom blocks, purchasing ambulances and sinking boreholes were all duties that could be best discharged by the Ministries of Education, Health, and Works and Housing respectively.
He said the Ministry of Education, Ministry of Health and Ministry of Works and Housing have more capacity and competencies to undertake such projects than the Ministry of Special Development Initiative.
The press conference was on the theme: “Protecting the public purse indeed”.
Touching on the spending of the presidency, Dr Hayford said it was wasteful for the presidency to allocate to itself more resources than for more than three key ministries resources put together.
He said that the appointment of 110 ministers by the Akufo-Addo-led administration was only over burdening the public purse, adding that even countries that are three times the size of Ghana do not have 110 ministers.
He said the monies spent on the 110 ministers could be channeled into more productive areas, such as the government’s flagship programme, the Free Senior High School.
Dr Hayfor, who is a former Senior Lecturer at the University of Ghana said it was unnecessary for government to spend over GH¢100 million to renovate the Flagstaff House and Peduase Lodge
