Government refusal to provide list of presidential staffers unjustifiable - Haruna Iddrisu

Haruna Iddrisu, Minority Leader

The Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu has described as unjustifiable government refusal to furnish Parliament with the list of presidential staffers.

He said 2017 ended without the Office of the President providing the list to parliament although it is a constitutional requirement.

According to him, several creations in the office of the president require that parliament is made aware of persons appointed to work in the presidency to ensure transparency and accountability.

“Where is the accountability and transparency? We demanded it [list] on the floor of parliament because we wanted to know as the numbers have been bloated,” he said.

In November last year, the Minority Leader on the floor of Parliament demanded that government respects the laws of the country and submit the list to the house.

His demand got the support of the Majority Leader, Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu, who said, “the Minority Leader is saying that the house must demand it (list of staffers)…I think that is a matter of course…before we adjourn on December 22.

"I think we should request for that information to satisfy ourselves about the expenditure involved with the staff at the Flagstaff House,” he added.

Fast forward to 2018 and the Tamale South legislator is still unhappy with government's posture on the issue.

Mr Iddrisu who said he got hints of the presidential staffer via the budget told Joy News’s Elton John Brobbey that President Akufo-Addo is busy appointing persons to the offices which are not a creation of the statute.

“You see him create deputy chief executive of an office yet in the law there is no position for such a person [in that particular office]…

“At best, they send two deputy chief executives when there is only one deputy chief executive,” the former Employment and Labour Relations Minister said.

Parliament rejected the 2018 budgetary allocation for the office of the Senior Minister for its planned programmes and policies.

The parliamentarians rejected the budget estimated at GH¢6 million arguing that the office was not a legal creation and therefore could not be allocated any funds from the national budget.

The Senior Minister office headed by Yaw Osafo Maafo was created by President Nana Akufo-Addo when he assumed office.

Leading the charge for the rejection Mr Iddrisu argued that the Senior Minister’s office is expected to coordinate the activities of other Ministries, Departments and Agencies and thus cannot be treated as a separate Ministry without legal backing.