President John Agyekum Kufuor is in a three-day retreat with his new team of Ministers in the leafy environment of the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA), Greenhill, Accra. A major consequence of the three-day retreat is that all ministers who have resigned their positions are to officially hand over to the new Ministers on Monday, August 6.

Castle sources told the Ghanaian Observer (GO) newspaper that yesterday was the first cabinet meeting for the newly appointed Ministers. President Kufuor is expected to superintend a team building session at which crucial issues of national security, the economy and the relationship between Deputy Ministers and their bosses will be pointed out and ironed out for the final `onslaught` as the government begins the end of its term.

So crucial is the retreat that instructions have already gone out to the Ministers to switch off their cell phones to enable them concentrate on the lessons lined up for them by President Kufuor. Mild protestations from some quarters have however resulted in a deal that will allow President Kufuor`s `school boys and girls` Ministers to put their cell phones on the `silent`mode whilst the lessons, discussions and other engagements during the retreat are underway.

Chief of Staff and Minister of Presidential Affairs, Kwadwo Okyere Mpiani will be the lead discussant on the vexed issue of the relationship between Ministers, Deputy Ministers and Ministers of State. It has emerged that some of the outgoing Ministers and those still in government had not been able to gel with their deputies leading to all manner of avoidable faux pas; a development which has been of grave concern to the President. `We need to sort out this problem of the disconnect between Ministers and their deputies so that the government machinery will be able to deliver as expected. President Kufuor is concerned about this, hence it being high on the agenda of the retreat.

The lead lecturer and student for the retreat will be the President himself,` a presidential source disclosed to GO. The state of the economy is also high on the agenda with Finance Minister Kwadwo Baah Wiredu expected to provide a brief on the economy for the benefit of the newly appointed Ministers. The retreat will according to presidential sources take a very critical look at the Stanbic Bank bid for the Agricultural Development Bank (ADB); with the intense public debate that has ensued since the matter became public serving as a basis to guide government. Baah Wiredu has given hints of what Government intends to do with state-owned banks.

He told the host of Brainstorm, a current affairs programme on Accra-based Happy fm in an interview yesterday when asked about government`s position on the Stanbic bid for ADB that government`s position on it is contained in the 2007 budget statement; which is essentially that the local financial sector must be made more competitive such that Ghanaian banks will be able to invest in other economies. On national security issues, our sources were as expected will not proffer any leads or information but GO gleaned that the so-called `contract killings` is of considerable concern to the Government.

The new Ministers will also take basic lessons in the structure of government and how the President expects them to work with him to achieve his and the NPP`s vision for the country.