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Friday, March 11, 2016

Gov't criticized over selection of cabinet ministers
Abdul Salam Sule, Ghanadot

Accra, March 5, Ghanadot - A member of the opposition New Patriotic Party has criticized the President, Prof John Evans Atta Mills over selection of his cabinet ministers.

The member of the opposition party to have criticized the selection of the cabinet ministers by the President is Mr. Asamoah Boateng, former Information Minister in the erstwhile NPP administration.

Asamoah Boateng who was commenting on the newly formed cabinet ministers by President Mills said, even though the President has the right under the constitution to determine who becomes a cabinet minster in his administration, the exclusion of two key ministries from the cabinet ministers list lives much to be desired.

He mentioned the Tourism and Information Ministers whose names were missing from the list of the cabinet ministries.

According to Mr. Asamoah Boateng, the work of the Information Minister is to disseminate information to the general public and the exclusion of the Minister from the cabinet Ministers would not help the government in putting out government information to the general public.

"The Ghanaian general public is always looking for information from the sitting government and without the Information Minister it would be impossible for them to get the needed information", he said.

Mr. Asamoah Boateng revealed that, during his tenure as an Information Minister in the Kuffour administration, he was made a cabinet Minister and he helped in given out information that the public demanded from the presidency.

He has therefore wondered why the information Minister was not given a place in the new cabinet.

On the tourism ministry, Mr Asamoah Boateng revealed that the tourism sector was a major source of revenue to any government and the exclusion of the sector minister from the cabinet ministers was not the best.

"I think the Ministers who were selected by the President to form the cabinet ministers constitute the area of priority of the President and it is not the best to exclude these two key ministries", he added.

Meanwhile, the Presidential spokesperson, Mr. Mahama Ayariga, disagreed with the former Information Minister.

Reacting to the issue raised by Mr. Asamoah Boateng, the presidential spokesperson said, the President considered every ministry as important.

He continued that, it was the constitution which required the President to choose 19 of his ministers to form cabinet ministers, stressing, those ministers whose names were not mentioned were equally important to the President.

Mr. Ayariga also denied the assertion that, the newly formed cabinet ministers constituted the priority areas for the President's policies saying that the government would develop every sector of the economy.

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