678 Staff At Mahama Office

Dr Kpessah Whyte, Baba Kamara, Emelia Arthur and Dr Clement Apaak

The Chief of Staff, Prosper Bani, is heading a 678-member presidential office staff, including advisors to the President, presidential staffers, presidential aides and ministers of state to the presidency, according to an annual report on presidential office staff signed by President John Mahama himself on January 28, 2014 and released to Parliament from the presidency.

This is in fulfilment of Section 11 of the Presidential Act 1993 (Act 463), which demands that the President submits a list of staffers to the House annually.

The 2013 list is 17 more than the one inherited by President John Mahama from his boss, the late President John Evans Atta Mills.

The latest list does not also include the recent appointments at the Presidency such as Ben Dotsei Mallor as the head of Communications and Spokesperson to the President and Kojo Adu-Asare, former Adenta MP who operates from the President’s conference room at the Flagstaff House in-charge of yet-to-be-established youth fund, and other people who are known to be working at the press secretariat at the presidency.

There are five Ministers of State at the presidency namely, Major Dr. Mustapha Ahmed (rtd), Abdul Rahid Pelpuo, Fiifi Kwetey, Alhassan Azong and Comfort Doyoe Cudjoe-Ghansah.

Other important personalities on the staff are the Chief of Staff, Prosper Bani; Deputy Chief of Staff, Dr. Valerie Sawyerr;  Executive Secretary to the President, Dr. Raymond Atuguba; National Security Advisor, William Kwasi Aboah; Coordinator of Human Security Project, Brigadier-General Joseph Nunoo-Mensah and Secretary to Cabinet, Roger Angsomwine.

There are four senior presidential advisors who are, Paul Victor Obeng, Dr. Sulley Gariba, Alhaji Issifu Baba Braimah Kamara, former High Commissioner to Nigeria and Dr. Cadman Atta Mills.

Nine people were also mentioned in the report as presidential staffers and they are: Commodore Steve Obimpeh (rtd), Kwesi Baffoe-Bonnie, Emelia Arthur, former deputy Western regional minister; Dr Michael Kpessa Whyte of University of Ghana; Dr. Clement Abass Apaak of University of Ghana; James Agyenim-Boateng, former deputy minister of Information; Kweku Tsen, formerly of Daily Graphic Political Desk; Kwabena Owusu Akyeampong, former deputy Interior Minister and Kale Cezario, former Upper West Deputy Regional Minister.

The presidential aides are Stainslav Xoese Dogbe, Vincent Senam Kuagbenu former Director of the National Service Secretariat; Sandow Seidu Kpedu, attached to the First Lady, Lordina Mahama and Kofi Ofori.

Among the public and civil service staff at the office of the president are 316 household staff who work at the Flagstaff House, State House, Peduase Lodge and residences of the President and his Vice.

Twenty-one people, including a chief director, are working within the main administrative set-up, while 15 people are working as executive and clerical officers.

Thirty-three people, mostly ladies, are on the secretariat staff while 12 people work with the procurement and supply unit.

Two hundred and sixty employees from the Ghana Health Service, Department of Parks and Gardens, Controller and Accountant-General’s Department, Audit Service, Ghana National Fire Service, Public Works Department and the Ghana Postal Company, have also been attached to the presidency.

In recent times, there have been public complaints of over-staffing at the presidency with some civil society members as well as some members of the main opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) saying that the over 670-member staff at Mahama’s office is too large for a country having serious challenges with its finances.

By Thomas Fosu Jnr