The government has described the recent outburst in parliament by the New Patriotic Party (NPP) members that the Atta Mills government was wasting state funds in setting up committees as an act of hypocrisy of the highest order. Stating government's official position on the story carried by The Chronicle newspaper last Thursday, a deputy Minister of Information, Mr. Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa said the Kufuor government set up not less than twenty committees, yet the same people have turned round to accuse the present government of wasting state funds by setting up committees. A few weeks ago, minorities MPs had been complaining that the president was setting up too many committees and wasting money in the process as many of the members of the committees were entitled to allowances and other largesse. But Mr Ablakwa contends there was no justification for the complaints. He enumerated some of the committee set up by the Kufuor government as the National Reconciliation Committee (NRC), the Wuako Commission, Okudzeto Committee, Committee of eminent chiefs who are still working, the Chinery Hesse Committee which worked for more than two years and took allowances in dollars, the Georgina Wood Committee, Kojo Armah Committee, Transitional committee, Ghana@50 Planning Committee, Anamuah Mensah Committee, Akamba Committee, Volta Lake Disaster Committee, Kofi Amoah Committee, National Awards Committee, the Committee set up by the then Interior Minister to investigate missing cocaine and host of others. Apart from the above mentioned committees, the deputy Minister also noted that some of the MPs who were attacking the government are serving on committees set up by the institutions they are working for. "Both the Minority leader, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu and Hon. Isaac Asiamah, who were very critical on the committee issue, are both serving on various committees in parliament, so what are they talking about here?", he asked. According to him, the government has a strong suspicion that the NPP former Ministers and their MPs might not be happy with the outcome of the report that would be prepared by some of the committees that have been set up by the current government, hence their attempt to frustrate the government to stop setting up more committees to probe their bad deeds, but that work because the government focused on what it has started. Okudzeto told The Chronicle that President Mills believes that no government on this earth can have all experts serving in it, and as stated in page 23 of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) manifesto he would not hesitate to tap the experiences of those who are outside government in the interest of the state. Mr. Okudzeto further argued that unlike the Committees set up by the Kufuor government, not all members of the committees are taking sitting allowances. According to him, the Kwame Nkrumah Centenary Committee members had indicated to the government that they would not take any allowances. Source: The Ghanaian Chronicle