Information Minister John Tia has hit back at critics of his ministry describing them as greedy elites with a misplaced agenda. Former Member of Parliament for Zebilla John Ndebugri and the Executive Director of the Centre for Democratic Development Prof Gyima Boadi have championed the call for the scrapping of the Information Ministry. They argue the ministry has outlived its useful purpose and has now become nothing more than propaganda machinery for government. At a media briefing in Bolgatanga, the sector minister minced no words in mounting a defence for the continued stay of his ministry. “The mass media today in this country is no longer just state-owned. There is private mass media, private interests. Somebody sets up to run down government. Somebody sets up to promote government. Somebody sets up to make personal money. “How does the government reach out to its people? And the constitution enjoins government to keep the people informed about its activities and policies. “Such critics are the greedy elites among us. They have a misplaced agenda and it will not succeed,” he said. The minister wondered why critics will now be calling for the scrapping of the Ministry when it has served this same purpose for many years under different regimes. In his reaction, John Ndebugri said he is hardly convinced with the explanation of the Minister. He religiously quoted section 11 of the Civil Service Act 1993 which clearly spells out the basis for the setting up of a ministry. According to him, the Information Ministry which is without department or units does not fully satisfy the requirement for a ministry. He argued further that all the existing ministries have a “research, statistics and public relations and information division” which makes the Information Ministry defunct.