'There are no offices for Council of State members, you carry your office in your car boots' — Cletus Avoka

Former Majority Leader and Council of State member Cletus Avoka has called for the establishment of dedicated offices and a separate budget for the Council to enable it to operate independently of government.

He said the Council needed adequate financial and institutional support to perform its constitutional responsibilities effectively, arguing that its operations had remained largely stagnant while other state institutions continued to develop.

Avoka made the remarks at an Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) roundtable on constitutional reform, organised as part of the think tank's Views and Reflections series examining the Prempeh Committee's recommendations and the government's response to them.

“The Council of State needs revamping and its own financial arrangements, so that it will have the power to operate on its own,” he said.

He lamented the lack of office facilities for most Council members, noting that only the Chairman had a dedicated office.

“While Parliament is developing and progressing, the Council is virtually stagnant in the sense that there are no offices for members. Only the Chairman has an office,” Avoka said.

“The others, they are behaving like the 1993 Parliament – you carry your office in your car boots.”

Avoka, a former Member of Parliament for Zebilla, was among the 11 individuals appointed by President John Mahama to the Council of State in February 2025.

At the same forum, former Chief Justice Sophia Akuffo, who has since resigned from the Council, called for the constitutional review process to be advanced, arguing that democracy should translate into tangible development.

She questioned whether the existing constitutional framework was adequate to deliver that objective.

“How are we going to do that under this present constitution? I think it has proven rather difficult,” she said.