He said three deputy ministers for some of the ministries including the additional portfolios created will definitely bring some cost to the public.

“110 ministers to run Ghana …, I’m not sure this is what President Nana Addo Dankwa promised the people of Ghana. Each of these minsters and their deputies will come with cost, secretariats will run and the incidental costs would be incurred and that now confirms why they are allocating Ghc1.5billion to the office of government machinery, which far exceeds the budget of 27 ministries combined, ” Mr Iddrisu said in a radio interview on Accra based Joy FM on Wednesday evening.

“You will see that even the budget of all the infrastructure ministries is less than what is being allocated for papers and for goods and services at the office of the president.

“We in the Minority, we are disappointed that they have no respect for the size of government, they have no desire to run an austere measure in order to protect the public purse.

“And the numbers I’m not too sure we have to meet at the appointments committee to see whether we can clear 54 ministers between now and when Parliament is able to rise. Our primary focus next week will be on the budget,“ he said.

To the Minority Leader, the 110 ministers for the NPP government should be a “sad moment for many of us, few years ago if you go back into memory lane, even in the campaign of 2000, 2004, the the size of government was an issue, but maybe civil society and other interest groups must take interest in it. I recall some discussion at the CDD, my position has always been that we should have limit to the number of ministers, and limit to the number of Supreme Court judges.”

He said Ms Sarah Adwo Sarfo’s portfolio of public procurement was even “nebulous “, would she be responsible for procurement for every ministry, department and agency?, the law would not support that, because the law [procurement law] defines refers to ministries, departments and agencies, maybe she will be minister supervising the public procurement authority.

“We look forward to more openness, transparency and more value for money that is what we need to do to improve public procurement and to use sole sourcing rarely and sparingly," Mr Iddrisu said.