Economist and Political Risk Analyst, Dr Theo Acheampong, is advocating for the repeal of the Economic Management Team (EMT) as a sub-committee under the Cabinet headed by the President, Nana Akufo-Addo.
The call for the repeal of the EMT by Dr Theo Acheampong is in view of the fact the EMT has no ‘power’ to enforce recommendations it makes to Cabinet.
The acceptance and subsequent implementation of recommendations made by the EMT Dr Acheampong notes, is the prerogative of the Cabinet.
“The EMT is a toothless bulldog, it can only advise, it can’t do anything apart from that. The real decisions are taken by Cabinet and subsequently implied by the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).”
“But that doesn’t mean we don’t need it, we still need it but as a sub-committee to the Cabinet,” he noted speaking during the NorvanReports and Economic Governance Platform X Space Discussion on the topic, “Should Ghana have an Economic Management Team or an Economic Advisory Council?”.
In his view, the EMT should be renamed to an Economic Advisory Council (EAC) with the constitutional mandate to enforce economic recommendations it makes to Cabinet given that the current EMT structure has no constitutional mandate.
“In view of the current economic issues and for our economic advancement, we must have an Economic Advisory Council that can bite, that has power and constitutional mandate to not only advise Cabinet but also enforce the recommendations it makes,” he quipped.
“The Economic Advisory Council must also have wide membership, members of the Council must not necessarily be Ghanaians, they can be non-Ghanaians. The most important thing is that the members truly understand the economic issues confronting the country and have the technical ability to proffer practical solutions to them (sic),” he added.