• Cassiel Ato Forson says Rebecca Akufo-Addo and Samira Bawumia should refund salaries allegedly paid to them
• He said the ongoing discussion is not about the allowances they were paid
• He stated that he was not in parliament when the MPs approved the recommendations
Cassiel Ato Forson says the decision by the First Lady and the wife of the vice president to reimburse allowances paid to them is not what Ghanaians are asking for.
According to the Ranking Member on Parliament’s Finance Committee, Rebecca Akufo-Addo and Samira Bawumia must refund salaries allegedly paid them by the state since 2017.
Speaking on Citi TV, the MP for Ajumako-Enyan-Esiam said, Rebecca Akufo-Addo and Samira Bawumia deciding to refund the money is not enough.
Ato Forson explained, “Returning the allowance is not what Ghanaians requested for. What got Ghanaians angry is the fact that they were going to be paid salaries and the salaries were going to be backdated.”
“What surprised me was that at the time that the committee made those recommendations, it failed to realise that they have already been receiving allowances in the last four years, and backdating their salary was going to make them get double anyway; that is allowances on top of the cabinet-level salaries, which will total about GH¢1.5 million.
“Both presidential spouses did not indicate whether they have received the monies yet in the statements they issued. In fact, the TUC has indicated in a statement that they [First and Second Ladies] have received the payment and went ahead to give a tall list of facts that per their checks, the First and Second Ladies have already received their pay dating back to 2017. So, who is telling us the truth? In the communiqué they said they are returning the allowances, what about the GHS 1.5 million that per our calculations they have received?”
He stated that, it is “needless” for Ghanaians to call on the former First and Second ladies to refund their allowances.
Ato Forson stated, the issue in question is not about the allowances those individuals received “but the salaries that were proposed by the Committee on emoluments.”
He said, “Regrettably, the way the documents were presented in Parliament, made it virtually impossible for the majority of the MPs to peruse it.
“On a normal day, this report must first be laid in Parliament, copies given to every single MP. Reports are also given to each of us, that is if a committee has already worked on it. And then give us 48 hours to peruse before the document is presented on the floor.”
He denied being in Parliament when the proposal was approved.
“On the day that the document was approved, that is 7th January 2021, I was not in the House, in fact, I had no idea such a proposal will be presented. Regrettably, I wish I was there.
“The report was presented at a time that about 50% of the MPs had lost their seats, and so most of them were not around. I think there should be some reforms. The President should set up the committee early enough, and they should finish their work within a year. You don’t present such a proposal at a time when most members have lost their seats and affect their appetite to come to the house,” Cassiel Ato Forson said.
Background
A recommendation by the Prof Yaa Ntiamoa-Baidu-led Presidential Committee on Emoluments for Article 71 officeholders has received massive backlash from the general public.
The committee had recommended that the First Lady be paid a salary equivalent to a cabinet minister who is a Member of Parliament (MP) while her husband is in office and the Payment of a salary equivalent to 80% of the salary of a Minister of State who is a Member of Parliament (MP) if the spouse served one full term as President or 100% of the salary of a Minister of State who is a Member of Parliament (MP) if the spouse served two or more full terms as President.
The committee further suggested that the Second Lady be paid a salary equivalent to a cabinet minister who is not an MP while her husband is in office and the Payment of a salary equivalent to 80% of the salary of a Minister of State who is not a Member of Parliament (MP) if the spouse served one full term as President or 100% of the salary of a Minister of State who is a Member of Parliament (MP) if the spouse served two or more full terms as Vice President.
Subsequently, both the First and Second ladies have rejected the offer.
The First Lady Rebecca Akufo-Addo has disclosed her intentions “to refund all monies paid to her as allowances from the date of the President’s assumption of office, i.e., from January 2017 to date, amounting to ¢899,097.84.”
Samira Bawumia, on the other hand, has also disclosed her intentions to refund all allowances paid to her since the inception of the Akufo-Addo-led administration.
She is expected to refund a total of ¢887,482 to the state following this decision.
