The Executive Director of the Ghana Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana), Prof. H. Kwasi Prempeh, has cautioned that awarding individual ministers for performance could undermine teamwork within government and complicate the President’s ability to effectively manage his appointees.
His remarks follow growing public debate over the Ghana Ministers of State Excellence Awards, an initiative organised by Big Events Ghana that has attracted criticism and prompted a response from the Presidency.
Critics of the awards argue that ranking ministers outside official government structures raises concerns about accountability, assessment criteria and the broader implications for governance.
Speaking on Joy News’ PM Express Business Edition on Monday, Prof. Prempeh said the awards could create unintended consequences by interfering with the President’s constitutional authority to evaluate ministers using internal performance benchmarks.
“Assuming, for example, that the President, who is probably contemplating a reshuffle, is met with an award designating a particular minister as the best minister,” he said.
According to him, a minister publicly celebrated by an external body could simultaneously be under consideration for dismissal based on the President’s own assessment.
“Meanwhile, that minister may well have been on the cutting block, right by the President’s own internal standards and benchmarks,” he noted.
Prof. Prempeh argued that such recognition could make personnel decisions more difficult for the President.
“This minister was probably going to be given the axe, and all of a sudden we have a third party with some private or whatever interest promoting this person as the one who, in their view, is the best minister,” he said.
He maintained that this could complicate presidential decision-making and weaken the President’s ability to manage members of the executive effectively.
Beyond concerns about personnel management, Prof. Prempeh warned that the awards could undermine the principle of collective responsibility that underpins government operations.
He explained that ministers do not function independently but work together to implement the President’s mandate.
“Ministers, even though appointed to particular roles and assigned particular responsibilities, deliver on a mandate collectively, which flows from the President and also terminates with the President,” he said.
According to him, effective governance depends on collaboration among ministers rather than competition for individual recognition.
“There is this idea of collective responsibility, and there’s a sense in which ministers must work together as a team to deliver on the mandate of the executive,” he stated.
Prof. Prempeh cautioned that rewarding individual ministers could encourage personal branding and self-promotion at the expense of collective performance.
“When you begin to throw these kinds of perverse incentives that cause one or the other minister to begin to pursue solo projects in order to get personal glory, you can undermine the teamwork that is at the foundation of this principle of collective responsibility,” he said.
He concluded that while the awards may be intended to respond to public interest in measuring government performance, the potential risks outweigh the benefits.
“I think these kinds of awards can have perverse incentives and can undermine the President’s ability to properly manage his or her team,” he said.
Prof. Prempeh maintained that governance should not be reduced to competition among ministers seeking public recognition, arguing that accountability, teamwork and effective executive management must remain the primary focus of government performance assessment.
