Cabinet retreats cost taxpayer GH¢5 million each according to Mahama - Enimil Ashon writes

Ghanaians have, all of us, without exception, become so rich suddenly that profligacy in multiple zeros (cedis, euros or dollars) doesn’t alarm us any longer.

How can we not flinch at news that "At the presidency (Jubilee House), one Cabinet retreat costs almost five million Ghana cedis.”

This disclosure is not the result of my investigation; it came from the mouth of former President John Mahama.

I do not know how Cabinet retreats have been costing the taxpayer over the years, and whether it was far less expensive in Mahama’s time as President.

All I care is that he used the figure as an example to show that Ghana is sitting on money and can finance any dream project if we cut out wasteful extravagance.

At a party rally where he promised to make Level 100 tuition-free, he was attempting to prove to Ghanaians that his promise is doable.

Another source of money to fund his tuition-free Level 100 is the cost of running the presidency.

"The budget for the Presidency is two billion Ghana cedis every year,” he disclosed, and asked: “Are we saying we cannot find 270 million Ghana cedis to ease the fee-stress of our students who are coming to do their first year in university?"

I am not shocked by the revelation. My shock is that Ghanaians, collectively, have not reacted to this news. Are we so rich that this colossal waste does not “touch our shirt” (as we say in Ghana)?

Are we not alarmed about these in a country where potable water is inaccessible to large portions of the population that they drink brownish water from which cattle also drink and into which the cattle urinate?

Cost

What goes (or should go) into a Cabinet retreat? Cost of venue? (granted that they hold it in 10-star hotels); cost of food and drinks?

Even if one Minister eats one cow per sitting, how much would we spend on 19 cabinet ministers (including the chairman of the ruling party)? And what do we have to show for this waste?

Dear readers, I have not said by the above quotes that Mahama ran a less expensive government. I don’t have the figures. What matters to me is that we can be less prodigal. Wastefulness is worse than corruption: it is corruption under supervision; corruption with official approval.

I am sure everybody heard what I heard from the Parliamentary Account Committee this week. At the committee’s sitting on August 21, it came out that US$15 million was spent on feeding athletes during the just ended African Games held in Accra, hosted by Ghana!

Some 2,644 athletes competed in the Games for 18 days, eating three times a day. Do the math.  

And take note: the amount is in dollars.

Our athletes performed so well that we didn’t (and still don’t seem to) care how our money went into hosting the Games. Someone took advantage of Christmas to eat crackers!!!

I won’t be surprised that someone has built a house out of another publicly funded programme. 

Inventions

By the last count, Ghana needs so much money that we had over-borrowed to the tune of GH¢611.2 billion as at end of 2023, rising to GH¢626 billion in January 2024 and GH¢656.6 billion a month later, in February 2024.

There are brilliant scientific inventions still at conception stage gathering dust in laboratories and shelves at our universities and CSIR institutes. They have been in their conception stage for years; not a breath of hope to actuate them.

Once upon a time, in the early 1960s, poor countries, in our ignorance, criticised Space America’s exploration expenditure.

No longer – after we’ve seen the immense benefits of the adventure, including the technology that landed us mobile phone.

In Ghana, Kwame Nkrumah, looking into the future, started a “Ghana Nuclear Reactor Project” to exploit the peaceful applications of nuclear energy and promote plans for the introduction of nuclear power for electricity generation.

Fast forward: In May 2012, Ghana set up the Ghana Space Science and Technology Centre (GSSTC) to become an arena of excellence in space science and technology, responsible for rainfall forecasting, building capacity for resilience to climate change and detecting available water resources.

Why am I waxing scientific today? Simple: I am pleading with Ghanaian politicians that there is so much this country needs money for.

Come 2024: Burkina Faso has commenced work on its first satellite, BurkinaSat-1.

The Burkinabe government is providing US$200,000 in funding for the procurement of components for the satellite project.

Some US$740,000 will be spent for the third phase, comprising the launch service and operationalisation of the satellite for about three to five years of nominal life in orbit.

Lesson: For whatever is important to anybody or government, money WILL be found.  

I am a Pure Arts person, but I am convinced that any country that plans with science and scientists can never fail.

Enimil Ashon, the writer is Executive Director, Centre for Communication and Culture. 

E-mail: ashonenimil@gmail.com