In an interview with Citi News, Mr. Banda said MPs should only be given ex-gratia after they have retired from the Legislature completely rather than benefit from it every four years as long as they continue to stay in Parliament.
The Council of State member has also kicked against Parliament’s suggestion that salaries, allowances and ex-gratia of MPs and all other Article 71 office holders be tax-exempt.
Such office holders include appointees of the Executive, Legislature and the Judiciary. The suggestion by the MPs was contained in a report of a special committee on the review of the 1992 Constitution.
The Committee’s report, signed by Majority Leader Cletus Avoka, among other things said taxing the ex-gratia of article 71 holders would be inimical to the beneficiaries. But Alhaji Asuma Banda believes continuing MPs have no justification to receive multiple ex-gratia after every four-year term.
He describes the practice as fraudulent.
“When somebody finishes and does not go to Parliament again, then he should be entitled to ex-gratia but it should not be every four years. And there is no justification not to be taxing ex-gratia. If they do that, then any worker who gets bonus should not be taxed. Why should they be having different law to protect their ex-gratia? I think the ex-gratia should be treated like how Civil Servants are treated when they are given their end of service benefit. When Civil servants go on retirement, their end of service benefits are taxed. So why should Parliamentarians have a different system to be called ex-gratia”? he asked angrily.
“Some of the MPs get ex-gratia every four years and I think that is a cheat to the nation. You go to Parliament and when you haven’t finished you are paid ex-gratia and then you go and stand for elections and come back and get money for the following four years. If we do this to our Judges some of whom have been on the bench for thirty years, do you know how much they will be collecting every year? Are the MPs doing better jobs than the judges whose social lives have been taken away from them? The moment you become a judge your social life has been taken away and there are so many things you can’t do, but for an MP, he can even leave Parliament and become President” a fuming Alhaji Banda said.
According to the business mogul, unlike in the past when people went to Parliament to make genuine impact on the country, it has turned into a jostling ground for personal assets.
“Parliament is for people of substance so I don’t see why they should be going for these petty things. See how many people are struggling to go to Parliament. We should make it a place that people go to be honored and put their names in the history of Ghana and say that ‘I did this or that.’ But now people go there and every four years we buy them a car. Some of them have been there three or four times and we buy them cars as many times as they are there. And we borrow monies for them to buy these cars.”
Alhaji Asuma Banda suggested that MPs must be paid well to allow them buy their own cars and house themselves, and must only be given ex-gratia when their terms have ended completely and they are not returning to Parliament.
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