Jumbo Pay For President

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Created on Saturday, 03 November 2012 00:00

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Jumbo Pay For President

02 November 2012

The monthly salary of the president has been increased to GH¢12,000 ($6,000) following an overwhelming endorsement of Parliament for salary rise for the executive arm of government.

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Ministers of State and their deputies are also to earn between GH¢8,000 and GH¢9000 respectively, just like presidential staffers and aides.

An analyst jokingly said the pay rise was the president and his ministers’ share of the Single Spine Salary Structure (SSSS). These figures were arrived at after a closed sitting of Parliament on Wednesday after the executive had also approved that of the MPs in a game of “you scratch my back, I scratch your back.”

According to the 1992 constitution, parliamentarians have the mandate to adjust the conditions of service of the President (and the vice) and the vice versa.

With the latest upward adjustments, members of those two arms of government would all benefit from arrears which would take retrospective effect from 2009. The president and his ministers would be paid salaries of 49 months multiplied by their new respective salaries.

It is based on this that their ex-gratia would be calculated and paid by January 7, 2013 when a new president and government would officially take over. The Majority Leader in Parliament, Cletus Avoka, laid the report of the Presidential Committee on Emoluments and Salaries of the Executive before Parliament for consideration on Wednesday.

Ghanaian MPs, as usual, concluded the over two-hour closed-door meeting tight-lipped about the details of the document and how much they approved for the executive and themselves. But by the close of the day, information filtered in about the quantum of the pay rise and was picked up by Daily Guide.

One Good Turn

The MPs’ approval of the executive pay package follows closely on the heels of a similar gesture extended to the legislature by the executive, when the Prof. Ewurama Addy Committee set up by the late President Evans Atta Mills to look into the salaries and emoluments of public office holders, under Article 71 of the Constitution, recommended a substantial increase as the salaries of MPs from about GH¢3,500 to GH¢7,200 per month for each lawmaker.

Per Article 71 of the constitution, salaries and emoluments of the Legislature have to be approved by the Executive while that of the Legislature have to receive the approval of the Executive.

The President, a former MP, was said to have approved the monthly salary of GH¢7,200 for the MPs, paving the way for Parliament to also give its approval to salaries and emoluments of members of the Executive who were earning half of what has been approved for them.

Indeed, the approval of the Executive’s emolument was the last gesture of the lawmakers before they went on recess for the last time on Wednesday, before the current parliament would be dissolved after the December elections.

Parliament is expected to reconvene on Monday, December 17, 2012 after the December 7, 2012 general election, to complete the unfinished business of the Third Meeting of the Fifth Parliament of the Fourth Republic.

Public Outrage

The quantum of the pay rise has attracted an intense outcry from a broad section of the Ghanaian populace.

Some visibly agitated commentators argued that public office holders were obliged to serve the people, and not the other way round, hence they did not merit the increase under such acute economic conditions.

Even some legislators disapproved of the recent pay hikes. Samia Nkrumah, MP for the Jomoro, was recently peeved with the increase in the pay of MPs, saying she would reject it.

Secretary of the anti-corruption advocacy group, Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII), Vitus Azeem, complained that the country’s economy could not absorb the raise.

“What is the general salary level of public servants in the country, you need to look at that as compared to what has been approved by the executive,” he told an Accra-based radio station.

Meanwhile, anti graft campaigner and a Member of Parliament for Asikuma Odoben Brakwa, Paul Collins Appiah-Ofori, said the increases were unjustified. “These officers enjoy certain benefits which also have money value, these officers use state vehicles, and the state is responsible for fuel, maintenance and their drivers’ salaries…they live in houses being paid for by the state.”

Raphael Ofori-Adeniran & Awudu Mahama

Source: Daily Guide/Ghana