A former Chief Executive Officer of the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA), Sylvester Mensah, has described as unethical, the number of ministers appointed by President Akufo-Addo.
The president has appointed over a hundred ministers and deputies to serve in his government.
But according to Mr. Sylvester Mensah, who’s also a strategic management expert, although the President has the constitutional mandate to do so, his actions are inappropriate in the practice of management and efficiency.
Speaking on Eyewitness News on Thursday, March 16, 2017, Mr. Sylvester Mensah said some of the president’s appointments were unnecessary.
He said the president had appointed people as ministers to supervise specific projects and programs that had clearly defined lifespans, hence such offices will become redundant when such projects or programmes had been completed.
He argued that some of those projects could be supervised by other ministries and did not need a new minister to oversee them.
“You don’t create a ministry for a project or program that has a clearly defined lifespan. In the current circumstances, we find ourselves creating ministries and appointing ministers for projects, for instance, if you talk about procurement, having a minister for procurement doesn’t sit well.”
“We have a procurement law that is clearly defined and we have a Public Procurement Authority with a Chief Executive who operates under the confines of a clearly defined law that vests all authority and power in the Chief Executive, and so if you have a CEO responsible for public procurement and you have a minister, is the minister coming to develop policies or develop a regulation for the implementation of a law and running the organization. I find this very troubling and very disturbing,” he said.
Ghanaians have expressed varied opinions about Akufo-Addo’s appointment of a hundred and ten (110) ministers – including deputies, to serve in his government.
The number is the highest in the country’s history, surpassing the immediate past John Mahama government by more than 20 appointees.
Many have criticised Akufo-Addo over the development which they say appears to be a betrayal of trust following pre-election assurances from Akufo-Addo that he will ensure a prudent and efficient government.
But the Minister of Information, Mustapha Hamid, has defended government’s large size of ministers.
According to him, the poor economic situation the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government inherited from the erstwhile National Democratic Congress (NDC) requires a good number of ministerial hands to help develop the country.
He also discredited claims that the many ministers in the government will have a negative impact on the state coffers.
Source: citifmonline.com
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who made this guy a strategic management expert. People wake up one day and arrogate to themselves titles they dont deserve. you nearly collapsed NHIA and as a result you were sacked.
Wonders they say shall never cease. Sylvester Mensah trying to proffer some management advice to the president? Wow! Under this guy, the small NHIA you argued for 3 deputy Chief Executives, namely, DCE Operations; DCe Finance & Investment; and DCE Admin/HR. After that, Finance alone you broke it down to 3 different Directorates, namely Financial Accounting; Budget and management Accounting; and Fund Management so you proposed 3 directors for only Finance except that the person you earmarked for Fund Management left so you refused to fill that position and it was managed by a deputy Director. In addition to the Directors, there were deputy Directors for each directorate. Again, under Administration, you had director for Administration and proposed a director for HR. Even Board secretary position you raised to a Directorate and having difficulty to justify, you then took the regulation of private health insurance to add to the board secretary's functions. You created a directorate for legal, a directorate for actuary, one for procurement, one for Quality Assurance, one for Internal Audit, one for Monitoring &Evaluation, One for Membership & Regional Operations, One fr Provider payments, one for Internal Audit, One for Claims, One for Corporate Affairs, etc. Even your Corporate Affairs alone has 4 deputy Directors. Is it any wonder that the NHIS is on its knees? So can such a person be taken serious? It's only in NDC that such a person could be considered to know any good knowledge about good management. As for the scandals he is involved in, only time will tell.
Yours at NHIA isnt right? Look this moron. You appointed women abusers as Claims director and later as MIS director clueless persons as Claims managers after 'servicing' you and your crony directors as PA wthin the wasteful CPC's, ***barred word*** as auditors etc. Since when did you know appointments can be disturbing? You are an epitome of public funds wastage. Save us the summons. you should have practiced what you are preaching when you had the opportunity to serve in public office. It's sickening hearing this from you.
We all heard how you managed small institution like HNIA and your frozen account. So stop talking about ethics.
Were you comfortable with hundreds of presidential Staffers appointed by John Mahama? The likes of Afriyie Ankrah, Adu Asare etc.and many others who after creating problems are all called to come and hide at the presidency to receive salaries. On that you saw nothing wrong with it.