Governance expert wants Council of State abolished

A governance expert and former United Nations Senior Advisor, Professor Baffour Agyeman-Duah, has suggested that the Council of State should be abolished due to the financial difficulties facing the government and the country in general.

“There are millions of experts who are willing to submit papers advising the president on key issues in the country without charging a dime and a good friend of mine at the Centre for Democracy and Development said if a president of this country and needs advise, that president can call any of the 30 million Ghanaians of our country,” he averred.Professor Agyeman-Duah, who is the Chief Executive Officer of the John Agyekum Kufour Foundation, wondered why constitute a body of 35 people, be paying them, giving them vehicles and other benefits when an advice giving to the president was not binding and questioned their relevance unless there was a way to reconstitute the body.

According to him, “if it is only to render advice then I suggest, even though members of the Council of State are experienced, respectable people and I respect all of them, but I believe there are some experts who can easily put together document to advise the president on any issue that comes up”.

He maintained that the president had the right to call any of 30 million citizens for advice and not pay for it because budgetary challenges should compel intuitions not to recommend retention however, lauded them for reducing their allowances by 20 per cent due to economic challenges facing the country.

Prof. Agyeman-Duah indicated that the decision demonstrated they recognised enormous problems and challenges facing the country at the moment and described their decision as exemplary leadership and implored the government to take more visible illustrations of new resolve to contain exploding expenditure.

“I think if the government looks critically at overhauling the whole structure of governance it will reduce tremendously the amount spent because some of its ministries, departments and agencies can merge or be reduced considerably,” he pointed out and commended the government to take further steps to really dramatise to the public the country was in crisis mood which needed to undertake austerity measures.

Source:GTonline