The Pan Africa Center for Transformative Society, a subsidiary concept of PALI Global, has commended President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, for reducing the number of ministerial appointments in his second term.

A statement issued and signed by Frank Paa-Kumi, Founding President, PALI Global, and copied to the Ghana News Agency, noted that the current government in its previous term had 126 ministers, which received a “distasteful public uproar and a colossal call for review and possible reduction.”

“The situation rendered the majority of Ghanaians despondent and sceptical about the efficiency and effectiveness of the elephant-sized government and how horrid it will be to our total expenditure as a lower-middle-income and food-deficit country.”

The statement said the President’s recent list of government appointees had been perceived by the Center, as a response to the public outcry that filled the airwaves after the appointment of the “elephant-sized government” in his first term.

“We acknowledge the thoughtfulness and timeliness of such a salient decision,” it said.

The statement said the introduction of six more regions was a tendency to record a hike in the already huge-sized government by the appointment of Regional Ministers and their Deputies and commended the President for the abolition of the appointment of Deputy Regional Ministers.

The statement acknowledged the decision of the President on the “regular intransigent posture of most public office holders in decision making,” and said the Center believed that the President had exercised flexibility in thought and demonstrated that his government would not be the “business as usual kind of government but a listening and action-oriented government.”

The statement noted that the emergence of COVID-19 pandemic had brought the country into a state of turmoil, which had led to the collapse of businesses and mass laying-off of Ghanaians.

It also stated that the pandemic harmed the public purse and the truncated size of government was a salient decision during the times of the pandemic.

The statement said it was about time the country had a national conversation on the size of the arms of government and their relevance to nation-building and development.

It called on the President to continue giving a listening ear to the views of citizens at all times, “bearing in mind the mandate which was entrusted to him with all confidence and optimism that he will not derelict in the performance of his duties as enshrined in the constitution.”