President John Mahama has defended his decision to omit the Ministry of Information from the 23 ministries in his administration, calling it a deliberate strategy to downsize government and ensure efficient communication.
The Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) recently raised concern about changes in the government structure, seeking clarity on the removal of the Ministry of Information from the President’s list of ministries.
Addressing the issue at a press engagement, President Mahama explained that the decision to exclude the Information Ministry was a deliberate effort to streamline government operations and eliminate redundancies.
“With regards to government communications, you’ll notice that there’s no Information Ministry in the lineup of 23 ministries we recently announced. That was partly in response to our promise to downsize government,” he stated.
President Mahama believes that doing this will ensure timely and accurate dissemination of information.
He also announced that, the creation of a Minister of State responsible for government communications will operate directly under the presidency.
“We had to be very strategic with how we dealt with the flow of information from government because that’s critical to the success of whatever we intend to do. That’s why we brought information into the presidency, with a Minister of State in charge of government communications, and anchored it with a string of strong communications professionals in the most critical sectors,” the president explained.
The President also revealed plans to modernize the Information Services Department (ISD), transforming it from a traditional civil service organization into a more dynamic entity under the presidency.
According to him, this initiative aims to strengthen the department’s ability to deliver consistent, accurate, and timely updates on government activities to the public.
