A retired Professor of Economics at the
American University in Washington, D.C., USA, Professor George Ayittey,
has suggested a drastic cut in the size of government in the country.
He observed that the size of government, which had grown so rapidly, was suffocating the economy.
He said, for example, that in 1997, there were 88 ministers, regional
ministers, as well as their deputies, in a country, with a population
of 25 million people.
According to him, in 2004, the number reached 92, but had now shot up
to 97, while the United States, with a population of 300 million, had
40 secretaries and assistant secretaries.
Prof Ayittey, who is also a Senior Visiting Fellow of the Institute
of Economic Affairs (IEA), was briefing the press on the state of the
economy at an event organised by the IEA in Accra yesterday.
He cautioned that if the government failed to drastically deal with
the bloated bureaucracy, the structural deficit it inherited would
continue to exist and the government would have to borrow at high cost
to prosecute development programmes.
Bloated bureaucracy
According to Prof Ayittey, because of the structural deficit problem,
the government had no savings out of which to finance its capital
expenditure.
He noted that the explosion in government’s bureaucracy was due to
the tendency on the part of governments to create parallel institutions
when existing ones did not work well.
Prof Ayittey, who is also an associate scholar at the Foreign Policy
Research Institute, said, for example, in the 1980s, the Commission on
Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) was created.
He said when that did not work, another parallel institution, the Serious Fraud Office (SFO), was created.
He said when President J. A. Kufuor took office in 2001, Fast Track
courts were created, while deficiencies and weaknesses in the existing
courts remained unfixed.
Prof Ayittey said another parallel institution was the Council of
State, which was duplicating the functions of the President’s retinue of
advisers, from ministers at the Presidency to presidential aides and
staffers.
He noted that excessive duplication of advisory functions simply
swelled the government payroll, saying the multitude of parallel
institutions and bloated bureaucracy had created a huge government
workforce of 700,000 workers and a wage bill that consumed 70 per cent
of the budget.
He said there were some high government officials who, for the past
25 years, had not paid a single pesewa in rent or utility bills, while
at the end of their service they wanted the government bungalows they
occupied sold to them at a fine price.
Perks
Prof Ayittey, therefore, suggested an action plan to cut down the 97
ministers and deputy ministers into half, as well as abolish those
ministers of state at the Presidency.
He also called for a reform of the Council of State and other
parallel institutions such as the Fast Track courts, CHRAJ and EOCO, by
resourcing existing institutions to work efficiently.
He also called for the abolition of the perks and privileges which
were relics of the colonial past which were used to entice British
citizens to serve in the colonies.
Prof Ayittey urged the government to retrieve state properties by
taking back all those government bungalows that had been handed over to
former government officials.
Corruption
On corruption, he said the African Union (AU) estimated that the
practice alone cost $148 billion a year, which was five times the $30
billion Africa received in foreign aid from all sources.
He said Africa, and especially Ghana, had not made much progress
because African governments fought corruption the wrong way, saying
never should the citizens get the head of state or government involved
in the fight against corruption
He noted that a typical African government approach to fighting
corruption was to set up a mind-numbing anti-corruption commission and
task force, amid pomp and ceremony, only to be sidelined after its
inauguration.
He said back in 1993, CHRAJ was set up to investigate corruption, but
when it came out with a report which fingered four ministers, the
Rawlings regime issued a White Paper to exonerate them.
Prof Ayittey, therefore, called on civil society, academia and the
private sector to spearhead the fight against corruption in the country.
He suggested the institution of a ‘’Report a Bribe Taker for a
Reward’’ programme that would be independent of the government machinery
that could honour courageous people who unearthed corruption in the
country.
He said, for example, that courageous people such as Mr Martin Amidu
could be honoured by civil society for them to serve as good role models
for others to take a cue from, instead of allowing them to be eaten up
by “wolves”.
Daily Graphic/Ghana
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