Former President, John Dramani Mahama, has questioned President Akufo-Addo over who will be in charge of the monitoring of his appointees following the directive of not travelling outside with the V8 and V6s.
He made this comment while reacting to the government’s decision to limit government expenditure to help ease the hardship facing Ghanaians.
The Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta in the 2023 budget statement presentation on November 24, 2022, announced that “Limited budgetary allocation for the purchase of vehicles. For the avoidance of doubt, the purchase of new vehicles shall be restricted to locally assembled vehicles.
“Only essential official foreign travel across government including SOEs shall be allowed. No official foreign travel shall be allowed for board members. Accordingly, all government institutions should submit a travel plan for the year 2023 by mid-December of all expected travels to the Chief of Staff.”
He added that “All MDAs, MMDAs, and SOEs are directed to reduce fuel allocations to Political Appointees and heads of MDAs, MMDAs, and SOEs by 50%,” the finance minister stressed.
“This directive applies to all methods of fuel allocation including coupons, electronic cards, chit systems, and fuel depots. “Accordingly, 50% of the previous year’s (2022) budget allocation for fuel shall be earmarked for official business pertaining to MDAs, MMDAs, and SOEs.”
Reacting to this, former President John Dramani Mahama was pessimistic the government would be able to track appointees who use the V8 and V6s in and outside Accra.
“Unfortunately, in this budget, Ghanaians are slapped with stiff additional taxes and no tangible cuts in expenditure. They just say don’t travel with your V8s. If you are traveling outside Accra, you can use your V8, but don’t use it in town. I mean, who’s going to monitor if you use your V8 or not?
“Expenditure has increased significantly by 80 billion cedis. It appears we have to accept to live with the excessive bloated size of government at the presidency,” the former President added over the weekend while addressing the 13th Congregation of the Accra Business School.
That said, he believes, the government can in a way limit its expenditure by reducing the size of the appointees.
He however urged the government to make proper plans and put in place measures that will help reduce expenditure causing damages to the economy.
