Presidential appointments have become means for creating jobs for party members and friends – Prof. Baffuor Agyeman-Duah

The Chief Executive Officer of the John Kufuor Foundation, Professor Baffuor Agyeman-Duah, has called for a constitutional amendment on the powers of the President to appoint ministers of state.

According to him, the constitution gives too much power to the executive which makes it difficult for the other arms of government to perform their duties effectively.

This, he said, has translated into the appointment of party loyalists to the helm of affairs.

He said increasingly, presidential appointments have become a means to create jobs for party members, friends and family, which is at the root of recent controversies over the number of ministers, Supreme Court judges, directors, and CEOs and their deputies of State.      

Professor Aygeman-Duah who was making a contribution to discussions during the fourth edition of Joy – Change Speakers Series, on Joy FM’s Newsfile programme, explained that the 1992 constitution vests so much power in the executive that the other two arms of government seem subdued.

He said the excess power of the executive has weakened the legislature in holding them in check.

“The Constitution gives almost limitless discretionary and appointing powers to the president and the power to appoint goes way beyond senior civil servants and heads of state agencies to district assembly members, even appointments to institutions classified by the constitution as independent are to be made by the president who is partisan yet we expect these bodies to be neutral.

“So apart from the so-called independent body, the constitution places no limits on numbers and levels to be appointed. This loophole and the discretion to create ministries and agencies at will enables self -aggrandising presidents to indulge in creating and dishing out positions with or without justification and unmindful of the burden on the taxpayer,” he said on Saturday.

He stressed the need for a constitutional amendment.

“The foregoing cases of constitutional lapses are among the reason why strong voices have emerged including mine for reviewing the 1992 Constitution,” he added.

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