Senior Minister Yaw Osafo Maafo has denied reports by some National Democratic Congress (NDC) commentators that his office has been overstaffed.

The Minister condemned commentaries in mainstream and social media that his office has over 24 staff.

“This cunning and misleading information has become part of some NDC commentators’ spin, as they discuss the 2018 ‘Aduma Budget,’ a statement signed by Seth Nketiah, Senior Financial Analyst, Office of the Senior Minister said.

The statement said that “for the benefit of doubt, I wish to place on record that the Office of the Senior Minister has 10 staff, including the Senior Minister made up of three administrative staff, three technical officers for financial analysis, economic and research each, one technical adviser and two drivers.”

It said “as part of the President’s agenda to drive economic growth on the wheels of effective partnership between the public and private sector actors, he (President) asked that the Public Sector Reform (PSR) Secretariat, which lost its steam during the NDC era, be placed under the Office of the Senior Minister for effective directives and responsibility, knowing very well that the PSR has a critical role in advancing his agenda.”

It added that “hence, today the Office of the Senior Minister includes the staff of PSR Secretariat that is why in the 2018 Budget under the Expenditure Allocation Schedule you do not see PSR as a spending unit but the Office of the Senior Minister.”

“I am happy to state that the PSR staff, who now report to the Senior Minister, through the Chief Director, were exactly the same in number and in persons since this government took over from the previous administration,” the statement said.

It added “apart from the newly created CEO for the PSR, not a single addition has been made to the staff there. It is therefore very unfortunate for any reasonable discussant worth his or her salt of such a policy document like the Budget of the State to divert attention from the core good news and hope that the budget aspires to bring to the good people of Ghana instead of professing a better alternative to enrich the discourse on the 2018 Budget.”

The statement said “much as the Office of the Senior Minister respects the free views and expressions by every Ghanaian citizen, it is important that they do so from a much informed position in order not to tarnish their own image in public service discourse.”