The Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Stephen Ayensu Ntim has refuted claims by the opposition party – National Democratic Congress (NDC) that government has deliberately refused to cut down on its bloated size.

Addressing the press on Tuesday in response to NDC’s ‘True State of the Nation Address’ which restated in the perspective of the NDC, a contrary view to President Akufo-Addo's State of the Nation Address, Mr Ntim noted that “the government has addressed the call to reduce its size.”

The reduction in government size, according to the NPP Chairman, is because they are a listening government.

“Indeed, between this government's first and second terms, the number of Ministers and Deputy Ministers has been significantly reduced from 126 to 86,” he pointed out.

According to him, the government has gone a step further to implement other cost-cutting measures.

These measures he stated, are decisive steps the government is taking to ensure fiscal discipline.

The measures are:

a. A 30% cut of the salaries of the President, Vice President, Ministers and Heads of State Owned Enterprises (SOEs).

b. A discretionary 20% cut to central government spending has been implemented.

c. A 50% cut in fuel coupon allocation for all political appointees and heads of government institutions to ensure efficient use of energy resources.

d. Suspension of the purchase of imported vehicles for 2022 to reduce total vehicle purchases for the year.

e. Suspension of all foreign travels except pre-approved statutory travels or critical travels.

f. Moratorium on the establishment of new public sector institutions. g. A ban on using V8s or its equivalent, except for cross-country travels.

h. Meetings and workshops should be held within the official environment or government facilities.

i. Government-sponsored external training and Staff Development activities at the Office of the President, Ministries, and SOEs have been put on hold.

j. A freeze on tax waivers for foreign companies while tax exemptions for companies in the free zone will be reviewed, including mining and oil and gas companies.

k. No Ministry, Department or Agency, including SOEs, is permitted to use public funds to purchase and distribute hampers.

l. There shall be no printing of diaries, notepads, calendars, and other promotional merchandise by MDAs, MMDAs and SOEs.

m. A moratorium on bonus payment for SOEs that record losses in the year for which the bonus applies.

n. All non-critical projects that can wait for a year have been suspended.

o. Expunged "ghost" names from Payroll through periodic payroll audits and the link of the Ghana Card to the Payroll.

p. Address off-budget expenditures by making sure all government expenditures go through GIFMIS.

q. Enforce commitment control within the various ministries, i.e., eliminate unauthorised expenditure, as well as ensure that MDAs do not sign contracts without an approved budget.

r. Establish inter-sectorial working groups to address crosscutting issues; review contracts and ensure standard reporting among ministries.

As a result of the above mentioned measures, he described as false claims that government has not heeded calls to reduce its size.

Touching on the comment that government has appointed people to needless positions and is paying them for doing nothing, he said: “

“It must be stated on record that many of the workers at the Presidency are public sector employees. Today, out of the 995 workers at the Presidency, 658 (66%) are public sector employees.

“As a matter of fact, the NDC Government had more presidential staffers than this administration. Whiles, we have 44 presidential staffers and 1 Minister of State at the Presidency, the Mahama-NDC Administration had 61 presidential staffers, 6 Ministers of State and the 3 "wise men."’

He continued “Under President Mahama, the NDC appointed people to all kinds of roles, including:

a. Valuer

b. Brand Executive Officer

c. Administrative Manager

d. Citizenship Development Officer

e. Personal Assistant

f. Research and Monitoring Officer

g. Research Assistant

h. Officer Manager

i. Senior Executive Assistant

j. Executive Assistant/Officer

k. Senior Administrative Liaison Officer

l. Corporate/Stakeholder relations Manager”