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PRESS RELEASE

CDD-GHANA CALLS FOR ACTION AGAINST GROWING TREND OF SUPER-SIZED PRESIDENTIAL

STAFF AND RETINUE

The publication last week of the list of presidential staffers for 2017 submitted to Parliament has revived the intense
public debate over the size of government. The 2017 list shows a total of 998 persons employed at the Presidency.
The Ghana Center for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) has taken due cognizance of the fact that the
published list covers both civil/public servants and presidential appointees serving under various designations at
the Presidency. Nonetheless, the 2017 list points to the persistence and worsening of a trend. CDD-Ghana is highly
disappointed that the President has chosen to continue this trend of overstaffing at the Presidency, considering the
public concerns raised over his appointment last year of an unprecedented 110 Ministers and Deputy Ministers.

CDD-Ghana is also disappointed that neither the Council of State nor Parliament has seen fit to rein in this growing
indifference of successive administrations to the fiscal cost of a super-sized presidential staff and retinue. Although
the role of the Council of State in the staffing of the Presidency is, under the applicable statute, only consultative,
the point of inserting the Council in the process is presumably to enable it counsel the President in its staffing
decisions, including, we would expect, in the size, where it appears excessive. Similarly, the point of statutorily
requiring the President to submit a list of the employees at the Presidency to the Parliament on an annual basis is
not merely for the sake of informing Parliament but to enable Parliament, on the basis of that information, to raise
any appropriate questions and concerns it might have over staffing with the Presidency. This is an especially
important role for Parliament, as staffing numbers have direct fiscal implications.

CDD-Ghana finds unpersuasive the defense that the listed presidential office personnel all play different and
necessary roles at the Presidency. In the case of the civil service personnel, it is not clear why many of the agencies
for which they presumably work must be located at the Presidency. A good number are functionally best situated
within one or the other existing Ministry or Department. In some other cases, it is not clear why those agencies must
continue to exist at all. With regard to the political staffers, there is undoubtedly a number who occupy useful and
indispensable roles in the service of the President and Vice President. At the same time, the list shows a large
number of personnel with vague, unclear, or superfluous roles as well as many instances of a needless duplication
of roles.

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Not only does this tend to undermine efficiency and discipline in the running of the Presidency, it also undermines
the credibility of the President’s pledge to protect the public purse by ensuring judicious use of scarce state
resources. With the President championing a ‘Ghana Beyond Aid’ agenda, a vision many Ghanaians appear to
have embraced, there is widespread and justifiable expectation that the Presidency would lead the way toward that
noble goal by signaling through its conduct an end to profligacy and an exceptional commitment to economy in the
expenditure of public resources.

CDD-Ghana is equally unpersuaded by the argument that the size of the President’s political staff is justified
because the President has a big agenda to prosecute. The proposition, that the size of a party’s or president’s
election manifesto must determine, in some directly proportionate sense, the size of its government, if accepted,
would lead us down an untenable path, as parties and presidential candidates would be motivated to outdo one
another in a race-to-the-bottom “manifesto war” and, then, once elected, proceed to justify their super-sized staffs
as necessary to prosecute their grand manifestos.

CDD-Ghana believes that, for effective governance and long-term development, including continuity in
implementation of government policies and programmes, what the country badly needs, and what successive
governments must invest in, is not more and more short-lived partisan appointees at the Presidency but a strong,
capable, well-staffed, efficient, and disciplined civil service, at both national and subnational levels. Omitting to
rebuild the capacity of our weak civil service and choosing, instead, to place reliance on hordes of party cadres is
not in the ultimate best interest of the country or its development, as it over-politicizes the business of government
and demoralizes and further weakens the capacity of the regular public administration.

In light of the foregoing, CDD-Ghana urges:

 Parliament, in the immediate term, to review the list submitted by the Presidency and demand
additional information and clarity as to the precise roles and duties of the many political personnel
listed with uninformative and vague job titles as well as require a disclosure of the salaries and
emoluments attached to the listed positions. In the medium to long term, Parliament must review the
Presidential Office Act, along with the Civil Service Act (as amended), with a view to depopulating
the Presidency of the many needless agencies that currently fall within its organogram.

 The Council of State to take its consultative role seriously and counsel the President appropriately
concerning overstaffing at the Presidency, including the associated fiscal costs and the unfavourable
perception it creates of profligacy in the conduct of the business of government at the seat of the
Presidency.

For more information, please contact:

Efua Idan Atadja

CDD-Ghana Communications Officer
+233 242147970
Email: e.osam@cddgh.org