Govt rebuffs minority claims over presidential staffers

Government has rebuffed claims by the Minority in Parliament that the President was planning to increase the number of staff at the Presidency from 998 to 1614.

The allegations were made by the opposition MPs and subsequently on several media platforms.

But briefing journalists in Accra on Sunday, Information Minister, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah rubbished the claims by the minority and challenged them to provide proof.

Mr. Nkrumah said the makers of the claim had either confused Office of Government Machinery with Office of the President or are only up to political mischief.

“Contrary to the claim, Staff numbers at Office of the President and Even the Office of Government machinery are rather going through a programmed reduction” he said.

The Information Minister said: “The Executive arm of government is organised into Ministries, Departments and Agencies. The supervising outfit of the executive arm is referred to as Office of Government Machinery. It comprises 19 different units one of which is the Office of the President. In 2018, established posts for OGM was 1697 and in 2019 it has rather been reduced to 1614”.

He entreated the media, to subject people who make claims about facts, to first substantiate them and not allow the public media space to be filled with untruth.

“The basic rule of evidence is that he who alleges has an onus to prove. If we do not push people to first prove their claims and instead give them mileage to keep repeating their false claims, only to ask persons against whom false claims are made, to rather come forward and prove their innocence, the media will soon be taken for a ride by people who feel all they have to do is make a claim because you will give them space” he added.