A former Chief of Staff under the Kufuor administration has downplayed the need to cap the amount the Presidency is expected to spend chartering aircraft for official duties.

According to Kwadwo Mpiani, such a proposal is unrealistic.

This follows a fresh allegation that President Akufo-Addo hired another luxurious aircraft on his recent trips to the UK and Germany.

According to the North Tongu MP, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, the trips on the hired jet cost the state £14,000 per hour and a cumulative GH¢3.46 million.

Earlier this year, Mr Ablakwa stirred controversy when he revealed that the President hired a private jet at the cost of GH¢2.8 million on his travels to France, Belgium and South Africa at the expense of tax-burdened Ghanaians.

On the back of the new revelation, a section of the public have suggested that measures be instituted to check the expenditure at the presidency as far as his international trips are concerned, including a threshold on the pricing of flight rentals.

But speaking on Joy FM's Top Story, Kwame Mpianim explained that the varied nature of trips and the fluidity of the President’s duties abroad, will hamper the feasibility of such a policy.

“You must have some confidence in your President that he will do what is right. So to draft a law or to say that the President can only charter an aircraft which will cost, say 5,000, I don’t think that it is right. What if he goes there and there is no 5,000 aircraft there, does it mean he should stop travelling?” he quizzed on Wednesday.

The statesman, however, subscribed to the school of thought that the private trips of the President must not be funded from the government coffers.

On August 31, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, in a Facebook post called for a national policy on presidential travels akin to what pertains in other jurisdictions.

“For his recent travels to the UK on the 27th of July, 2021, to attend the Global Education Summit and last week’s state visit to Germany, he blatantly refused to travel on the presidential jet.

“Instead, he opted for another top-of-the-range VIP luxury charter jet, specifically known to industry players as the Boeing 737-900ER BBJ3,” he alleged.