Presidential Staffer Dr Michael Kpessah-Whyte has hit hard at communication expert, Professor Audrey Gadzekpo for faulting the President’s appointment of Ben Dotse Malor as head of communications at the presidency. Dr Kpessah-Whyte says Professor Gadzekpo’s critique of the appointment was ill-informed and unnecessary. Professor Gadzekpo who is with the school of communications at the University of Ghana had earlier told XYZ News in an interview that she found the appointment of the former BBC Presenter redundant due to the existence of the ministry of information.

“My alarm at hearing the news really has to do with how things are organised at the Presidency and also I wondered whether it will not be a duplication of what perhaps a whole ministry of information that seems to be dedicated to communication from Government, from the Presidency is about. So that’s my confusion”, she told Radio XYZ’s Strict Proof on Monday.

Despite conceding that Malor’s pedigree as a Communications person was impressive, Prof Gadzekpo said: “It seems to me that we have yet another presidential staffer drawing on the consolidated fund”.

Dr Kpessah-Whyte told XYZ Breakfast Show Host Moro Awudu on Thursday that Prof Gadzekpo’s comments were neither here nor there. “I’m sorry she’s a very respected colleague of mine on campus but I don’t think that her comments are informed by any research”, Dr Kpessah-Whyte said. “In fact comparatively speaking, this presidency has the lowest number of presidential staffers and advisers compared to previous Presidents…to just generalise and say that there are too many staffers. It’s another draw on the public purse.

Come to think of it, Ben Dotse Malor was in a very very good job at the UN – head of UN radio, advising UN Secretary General – I mean [he] was in great shape to advise the 66th President of the United Nations General Assembly. My thinking is that he probably was earning far much more than what he will be earning over here so I mean how could we say that it’s just another draw on the public purse to that extent?” He said critics of the President must not be destructive with their criticisms. “We need to really be very circumspect and constructive in our commentary in order not to unnecessarily bruise the egos of people who are working very hard under very trying circumstances on daily basis to make life better for everybody”.