Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko, a former Executive Director of policy think tank Danquah Institute (DI) has said President Nana Akufo-Addo’s focus is to have a results-oriented government rather than a lean one.

“Akufo-Addo has never put lean government before a government that delivers,” Mr Otchere-Darko wrote on Facebook in connection with the president’s presentation of a list of 998 staffers at the presidency to parliament.

“I recall in 2006, we were working on a speech and when I mentioned ‘lean government’, he told me point blankly that our situation in Ghana calls more for a well-resourced government machinery that can deliver.

To drum home the point, Mr Otchere-Darko quoted his uncle as saying at the time that: “The whole of Brong Ahafo had one senior prosecutor when he was appointed AG” and that: “The consequences of that is the delay and denial of justice to both the accused and victims of crime. I want to focus on the delivery machinery, on results.”

The former DI Executive Director said: “I don’t think he has changed. None of his 3 Manifestos stressed on the concept of small government. To him the capacity and ability to deliver is what matters most. Competent delivery is, after all, cost-effective”, he added.

Akufo-Addo has taken a lot of flak for the almost 1000 staffers at the presidency since he presented the list to parliament.