Investigative Journalist, Manasseh Azuri Awuni has described the output of the elephant size ministers of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo as worse off than the figure people were complaining about.

“When we complained about the high number of ministers, we were told to wait and judge their output, not just the numbers. The output we’ve seen is worse than the size. So what’s the next excuse?” he quizzed in a Facebook post sighted by MyNewsGh.com

In March 2017, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo made several headlines in the media both locally and internationally for the size of his government which attracted a wide range of criticisms from the citizenry as well as Ghanaians living outside the country.

As always been the case, the international media had a very unique way of reporting the matter which has now become a topical issue in the country with many media houses especially radio and television stations tabling it for discussion.

But Nana Akufo-Addo in a bold attempt to lay the matter to rest, said his government will work to transform the economy in a way that will trivialize the argument about the cost involved in running a big government.

“I am aware that people are concerned about what they see is the cost of this large government. The number of deputy ministers, 42 out of 50 are all Parliamentarians. In effect, converting them from Parliamentarians into ministers, the marginal cost of that transformation is minimal in terms of its impact on the public exchequer.

“Over all out of the 110, 65 to 70% of them are all from Parliament. So the burden on the public exchequer which is the matter that is agitating the minds of people will not be anywhere as acute as people think.

“…If our strategy for economic growth succeeds in accelerating the rate of growth in the economy, what you call the brouhaha over appointment of large government will certainly be a brouhaha.

The president dismissed assertions that his appointments will create a parallel structure to the civil service, insisting his appointments are targeted, well thought through to achieve the best possible results for the country.