Mahama Government Breached Law by Failing to Submit 2024 Staffing Report, Says Kow Essuman

Former Legal Counsel to former President Nana Akufo-Addo, Kow Essuman, has accused the Mahama administration of breaching the law by allegedly failing to submit the annual staffing report for the Office of the President covering the 2024 calendar year.

In a Facebook post on Thursday, June 11, Mr Essuman argued that the report, which should detail staffing levels at the Presidency from January 1 to December 31, 2024, was required by law to be submitted to Parliament by March 2025. He questioned whether the government had complied with that obligation and challenged officials to make the report public.

The annual staffing report is a statutory instrument designed to ensure transparency in the use of public resources at the seat of government. It provides Parliament and, by extension, the public with a clear picture of how many people are employed at the Presidency and at what cost to the taxpayer.

According to Mr Essuman, annual staffing reports were consistently submitted during the Akufo-Addo administration, including the 2023 report, which was presented to Parliament in March 2024. He noted that those records remain available within the Presidential Archives and can be verified by any interested party.

He maintained that if the report for 2024 had indeed been submitted, the government should release the figures showing the staffing levels that existed when former President Akufo-Addo left office. Transparency on this matter, he argued, was necessary to address the ongoing debate over staffing numbers at the Presidency.

“So the critical question is this: did this government submit the report in respect of staffing for 1 January 2024 to 31 December 2024? If they did, they should provide us with the numbers as at the time President Akufo-Addo was leaving office. If they did not, then it is a serious breach of the law,” he wrote.

The accusation carries significant weight because it goes beyond the political back-and-forth that typically characterises exchanges between the ruling party and the opposition. A failure to submit a statutory staffing report would represent a procedural violation with potential legal consequences, not merely a difference of opinion over policy.

Mr Essuman’s challenge also intersects with broader concerns about government transparency. The Roads Minister’s recent request for 1,000 additional staff to address personnel gaps across agencies highlighted the government’s own acknowledgement of staffing challenges across the public sector. Against that backdrop, the absence of a staffing report for the Presidency raises questions about whether the executive is practising the same transparency it expects from other arms of government.

The former presidential adviser said accountability should apply to all governments regardless of political affiliation, insisting that adherence to statutory reporting requirements is a constitutional obligation. “The law is no respecter of persons. Accountability is not a partisan project; it is a constitutional duty,” he added.

Neither the Presidency nor the government has publicly responded to the claims. If the allegations prove accurate, the matter could escalate into a formal parliamentary inquiry, testing the willingness of both sides of the House to enforce compliance with reporting obligations that exist precisely to prevent unchecked expansion of government staff.

Image Source: MYJOYONLINE