A member of the Review Committee of the Civil and Local Government Staff Association of Ghana (CLOGSAG), Daniel Appiah, has challenged the rationale behind the recommendation to make the Controller and Accountant-General’s Department (CAGD) independent of the Ministry of Finance.

Speaking in an interview on Joy FM’s Top Story on Wednesday, March 4, Mr. Appiah said while the Constitutional Review Committee (CRC) made several commendable recommendations, the proposal concerning the CAGD remains “problematic and challenging.”

His comments follow CLOGSAG’s outright rejection of the CRC’s recommendation to convert the CAGD into an independent or hybrid constitutional office.

CLOGSAG maintains that the department, which currently operates as an implementing agency under the Ministry of Finance, should remain under the Ministry’s administrative oversight to ensure effective fiscal coordination.

Addressing a press conference in Accra on March 4, CLOGSAG’s Executive Secretary, Bampoe Addo, warned that the proposal could create institutional confusion and weaken financial management systems.

“We disagree with the proposals to establish the Controller and Accountant-General as an independent or hybrid independent constitutional office. The mandate of the Controller and Accountant-General’s Department falls squarely within the functional oversight responsibilities of the Ministry of Finance,” Mr. Addo stated.

Expanding on the association’s concerns, Mr. Appiah argued that the 1992 Constitution already provides clear guidelines on how heads of public service institutions should be appointed.

“If you look at the 1992 Constitution, it makes provisions for how heads of public service organisations should be recruited. The President makes the appointment acting on the advice of the governing council of that particular service,” he explained.

He cited the example of the Audit Service, where the Auditor-General is appointed based on the advice of its governing board, to illustrate existing constitutional safeguards.

Mr. Appiah further criticised the CRC for failing to clearly state the problem the recommendation seeks to address.

“The Constitutional Review Committee has not stated any problem for which they have come out with recommendations concerning the Controller and Accountant-General’s Department. In the absence of any clearly defined problem, one cannot logically accept the solutions that they have proposed,” he argued.

While acknowledging that many of the CRC’s broader recommendations could help Ghana transition from what he described as “an electoral democracy to a development-focused nation,” he insisted that reforms must be grounded in clearly identified institutional gaps.