President John Mahama and his Chief of Staff, Mr. Prosper Bani, have a big ‘headache’ on their hands. It is not a ‘headache’ that needs medical solution but one that needs political solution.
It’s about the ‘refusal’ of some Ministers of State who have been appointed from public or private organizations to vacate those official places of abode, for those who have been appointed to replace them to move in.
A senior official at the Ministry of Housing explained to the Daily Dispatch, “my Minister has always been in a quandary. Quite a number of the Ministers who were reappointed have virtually refused to move out. We have forwarded our problem to the appropriate authority at the Flagstaff House and waiting for the necessary action.”
He cautioned, “there are times that we get the funny feelings that the former Ministers are hoping that there would be a re-shuffle and would be made Ministers again.”
On how the newly-appointed officers and Ministers are being accommodated, the source said “some of them are being put up in hotels, which is becoming a drain on government coffers.”
He appealed to President Mahama to insist that ministers who move into official bungalows should be moderate in the requests for renovations.
We asked him, “will the ministry go and force those Ministers out, with police assistance?”
He looked away, paused for a minute and answered, “we hope it will not come to that.”
President John Mahama and his Chief of Staff, Mr. Prosper Bani, over to you.