PARLIAMENT HAS made proposals to the Committee on Emoluments, appointed by President Atta Mills, requesting a monthly salary of GH¢7,000 (¢70m) for its members, according to information gathered by DAILY GUIDE.
The Committee on Emoluments has been tasked to recommend new salary levels for Article 71 office holders for consideration.
This is in accordance with Article 71 (1) (a) which states that “the salaries and allowances payable, and the facilities, and privileges available to the Speaker and Deputy Speakers and Members of Parliament… being expenditure charged on the Consolidated Fund shall be determined by the President on the recommendations of a committee of not more than five persons appointed by the president, acting in accordance with advice of the Council of State.”
The figure, DAILY GUIDE learnt, was arrived at during the Committee of the Whole meeting on Friday afternoon, during which a report of a special parliamentary committee on emoluments was presented to the House for consideration.
Members of the Committee are John Akologu Tia, MP for Talensi, and Minister for Information E.T. Mensah, MP for Ningo/Prampram, and Minister for Employment and Social Welfare Dr. Anthony Akoto Osei, MP for Old Tafo, and Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, Minority Leader and MP for Suame.
Although members of the committee were tight-lipped on the GH¢7,000 figure, the House, DAILY GUIDE gathered, carefully considered the current salary levels of Ghanaian MPs and what their counterparts in other African countries receive.
The Committee could however not settle on the proposal that MPs’ salaries should be structured according to their length of stay in the House, as that decision has been left to the leadership of House, which is expected to work out the modalities and agree on the graduations.
According to DAILY GUIDE sources within Parliament, the Committee, chaired by John Tia, engaged consultants, and their suggested salary ranges between GH¢5,000 and GH¢8,000 but the Committee of the Whole settled on an average figure of GH¢7,000.
Ghanaian MPs, DAILY GUIDE learnt, currently receive about GH¢2,700, out of which their car loans are deducted, and other payments made including those of house-helps and drivers, leaving them with a take-home salary of about GH¢600.
This, according to them, was far below what their counterparts in other African countries received.
For instance, MPs in Kenya receive a monthly salary of about $14,500 and in addition to this, every legislator collects a $60,000 grant for a car, $50,000 for accommodation and ex-gratia of $66,000.
They also receive entertainment, car maintenance, constituency and extraneous allowances.
Again, MPs in South Africa, DAILY GUIDE was told, receive a monthly salary of about $8,330.
Even MPs in relatively smaller neighbouring countries and war ravaged nations like Liberia, the paper gathered, receive better pay than Ghanaian MPs
By Awudu Mahama