Think Tank calls for reduction in number of Council of State members

Institute for Liberty and Policy Innovation (ILAPI), a Tema based think tank, has called for the reduction of members of the Council of State from 25 to about 15.

ILAPI said a reduction in the number would save the country a lot of money paid to them as allowances and ex gratia.

A statement signed by Mr Peter Bismark Kwofie, President of ILAPI, said “we believe that the Council of State, a largely unelected body of 25 persons created by the framers of the 1992 Constitution to advice the President, are too many”.

According to the organization, a huge amount of about GH¢16.4 million was spent on allowances of members each time their term of office expired with the President.

“In four years when their term of office expires with the President, they would have earned GH¢16,422. What ILAPI is asking is that after spending all these gargantuan money on them, what do we as a country get in return”, it stressed.

They questioned why members of the Council of State should be paid like Article 71 office holders, since they were required by the constitution to meet at least four times a year.

Mr Kwofie noted that even though 10 of the members of the Council of State were voted for, the rest who were appointees of the President were mostly members of the ruling party who did not account to the people but rather favour the one who appointed them.

The statement also indicated that deliberations of the Council of State were not open to the public as the media were not allowed to into their meetings, adding that their advice was not binding on the President or Parliament.

ILAPI therefore called on incoming President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and Parliament to decrease the number of members of the Council of State to save the state a lot of resources that could be channelled into other developmental ventures.

Source: GNA