Staff of Office of the President to drop by 69

The number of staff at the Office of the President is expected to drop from 998 in 2018 to 929 next year.

Similarly, the number of staff under the Office of Government Machinery is also expected to decrease from 1,697 this year to 1,614 in 2018.

These reductions have been mostly attributed to retirees who are not being replaced.

Staff at the Office of the President are part and parcel of staff under the Office of Government Machinery.

Minister of Information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, who gave the explanations at a media briefing yesterday explained that the minority confused the number of staff working under Office of Government Machinery with that of Office of the President to claim that government intends to increase staff at the Office of the President to 1,614.

He was of the view that if the claim by the minority was not the outcome of confusion, then it was only meant for deliberate political mischief.

He emphasized that contrary to claims of an increase, the staff numbers are rather reducing.

“Specifically Office of the President for the avoidance of doubt, is expected to reduce by 69 by end of 2019.

“Contrary to the claim peddled last week, there is rather a net reduction of 83 staff at the Office of Government Machinery staff numbers by year end 2019.

“This will mostly be as a result of retirees who are not being replaced.So contrary to the claim of an increase in numbers, there is rather a reduction in numbers by 69 specifically at Office of the President and net reduction of 83 in all at the entire Office of Government Machinery,” he further explained.

He entreated the media to subject people who make claims about facts, to first substantiate them, before giving themmedia mileage to repeatedly peddle such unsubstantiated claims.

“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 who 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 to make a claim before you give them space,” he stressed.