President Nana Akufo-Addo has placed a moratorium on the purchase of new vehicles by Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).

A letter written by the Chief of Staff, Akosua Frema Osei-Opare dated March 21 said the ban holds until further notice. MDAs have been instructed to make use of the “existing fleet of vehicles in their respective transport pools”.

Speaking in an interview on Peace FM, Deputy Chief of Staff, Samuel Abu Jinapor said the ban was necessary in order to channel resources that would have been used to purchase new vehicles into the implementation of “ambitious” projects by the Nana Addo administration.

Addressing the issue on Peace FM’s ‘Kokrokoo’, Kwesi Pratt Jnr. has commended the President for such directive to the MDAs.

According to him, the culture where vehicles are the Heads buy vehicles when they resume office or leaving office is becoming disturbing.

He said sometimes there will be existing vehicles which could be usable by the MDAs but they will bypass them and make purchase of new ones, which he believes is usually a total waste of resources.

To him, the MDAs should be able to use the existing vehicles.

Mr. Pratt cited there have been some convention within the MDAs whereby the Heads turn some of the existing vehicles for personal use and own them after their tenure of office, or sometimes they would buy a brand new vehicle and place them there till the end of their tenure so they can own them.

This habit of owning State vehicles, he condemned, adding that the President’s directive is “in the right direction. This is not CPP vrs NPP thing. The truth is just one. The President’s directive is a directive that if we follow will help Ghana.”

Also touching on the President’s directive, NPP Member of Parliament for Tarkwa Nsuaem, George Mireku-Duker lauded President Nana Akufo-Addo for suspending the purchase of new vehicles.

In his view, the President’s directive is targetted at cutting down cost and ensuring that the government achieves its objectives.

He advised the MDAs to heed the directive and use the existing vehicles to carry out their official duties.