A member of the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC), Sam Pee Yalley, has described the seat of government as the “most cheapened office” in the country.
According to him, the presidency, which is an embodiment of the spirit and soul of the nation, has lost its worth.
“If you do content analysis of newspapers for the past twelve years, you will not see anything positive about our presidents. Ghana has become a country of weekly scandals and controversy,” he stressed.
Mr. Pee Yalley was reacting to the backlash after government submitted a list of 678 employees to Parliament.
While many argue that the presidential staffers are too many given the current economic woes; former Chief of Staff under the Kufuor administration, Kwadwo Mpiani has criticized the figure, describing it as “job for the boys”.
But on Asempa FM’s Ekosii Sen programme Thursday, Sam Pee Yalley bemoaned what he described as the over politicization of national issues.
He said President John Mahama did not err in appointing aides and staffers because the Presidential Office Act gives him the right to appoint any person he considers necessary to the presidency.
Sam Pee Yalley said the notion being mischievously created that all 678 people are the president’s appointees is factually incorrect since the majority of those working at the presidency are civil and public servants.
The Ambassador designate said he is not surprised about what is happening because the same “argument and noise” being made today were made when former President John Agyekum Kufuor was in power.
He blamed Parliament for the brouhaha about the issue since according to him; they failed to exercise their full powers.
Mr. Pee Yalley said if Parliamentarians are able to prove with statistics that the cost of running the presidency is too high, it will put the issue to rest.
“Perhaps we are jumping the gun; I will want to hear our MPs say that there are some people at the presidency who ought not to be there,” he observed.
Meanwhile, the Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee in Parliament is set to interrogate the Presidential office Staff report.