Scrap Free SHS secretariat, others to save public purse – Mahama to govt

Former President John Dramani Mahama has charged the government to scrap or merge some agencies to save the country’s resources.

Mr Mahama believes the Akufo-Addo-government has created too many redundant agencies, contributing to the nation’s current economic woes.

He said this during a forum on the economy dubbed “Building the Ghana We Want” on Thursday, October 27.

“There are too many agencies created overnight without any functional necessity that must be scrapped or merged for efficiency to ensure savings to the public purse.”

He said one such “overnight” agency is the Free Senior High Schoo(SHS) Secretariat.

“The Ghana Education Service has adequate capacity to handle the implementation of the policy without the wasteful existence of another secretariat.”

The former president also cited the One-District-One-Factory Secretariat as doing the work that the Ministry of Trade and Industry could do.

“The so-called Special Development Initiative Secretariat and the accompanying Development Authorities must be scrapped, and their supposed functions sent back to the Metropolitan, Municipal, and District Assemblies whose work they have usurped for sloganeering purposes,” he said.

He also suggested that the National Entrepreneurship and Innovation Programme, National Employment Agency, Microfinance and Small Loans Centre (MASLOC), Ghana Enterprise Agency and many others could be merged into one entity under the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations.

Mr Mahama added that one other major problem that has brought Ghana’s economy to its knees is the frivolous spending of scarce resources.

“It is not possible to leave beyond our means and avoid the kind of economic turnout we find ourselves in today,” he observed.

He then proposed that the size of the government must be cut down to reduce expenditure.

He noted that “the budget of the office of government machinery has ballooned over the last six years from a little over GH¢700 million to GH¢3.1 billion in 2022.

“Substantial savings of GH¢1 billion or more can be made by slashing the budget of the Office of Government Machinery,” Mr Mahama added.