Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko, a former Executive Director of policy think tank Danquah Institute (DI) has said Pesident Nana Akufo-Addo’s focus is to have a results-oriented government rather than a lean one.

“Akufo-Addo has never put lean government before a government that delivers,” Mr Otchere-Darko wrote on Facebook in connection with the president’s presentation of a list of 998 staffers at the presidency to parliament.

“I recall in 2006, we were working on a speech and when I mentioned ‘lean government’, he told me point blankly that our situation in Ghana calls more for a well-resourced government machinery that can deliver.

To drum home the point, Mr Otchere-Darko quoted his uncle as saying at the time that: “The whole of Brong Ahafo had one senior prosecutor when he was appointed AG” and that: “The consequences of that is the delay and denial of justice to both the accused and victims of crime. I want to focus on the delivery machinery, on results.”

The former DI Executive Director said: “I don’t think he has changed. None of his 3 Manifestos stressed on the concept of small government. To him the capacity and ability to deliver is what matters most. Competent delivery is, after all, cost effective”, he added.

Mr Akufo-Addo has taken a lot of flak for the almost 1000 staffers at the presidency since he presented the list to parliament.