Finance Minister lays out measures to ease hardship
Political historian wants Council of State scrapped to cut cost
Political historian and former United Nations Senior Advisor, Professor Baffour Agyeman-Duah, has advocated for the scrapping of the President's main advisory body, the Council of State.
According to him, doing so will not negatively impact governance in any way but will rather ease the economic crunch that Ghana is suffering.
He believes that cutting the allowances and other perks given to the members of the Council of State will save the country some money whereas the President can always rely on a group of experts for free advice as and when.
“Is there a need at all to constitute a body of 35 and to be paying them, giving them vehicles and all these benefits when in fact the advice given to the President is not binding?
“So, one will question the relevance unless there is a way to shape it up to form. But if it is only to render advise then I will suggest, even though members of the Council are experienced people, they are highly respectable people, I respect all of them, but I believe that there are some experts who can easily put together a paper to advise the President on any issue that comes up,” he said.
Prof. Agyeman-Duah, stated his respect for the experience that each of the members brought to the table and commended their recent decision to cut their allowances till end of the year by 30%.
Nana Otuo Siriboe II, Chairman of the Council of State affirmed that the decision was part of their contribution towards easing the economic crunch government was working to ease.
But for Prof. Agyeman-Duah, scrapping the body needed to be considered: “All I am saying is that if it is a matter of advice, the President has the right to call any of the 30 million people for advice and not pay for it.“
“In a larger scheme of things especially, if you are looking at our budgetary challenges, then it will be one of the institutions that personally, I will recommend not to be retained,” he said in an interview with an Accra-based news outlet.
The Council of State in Ghana is a body of prominent citizens, analogous to the Council of Elders in the traditional political system, which advises the President on national issues.
President Akufo-Addo in a group photo with members of the Council of State | File photo