Let’s demolish ‘apartheid Article 71 emoluments regime’ – Ablakwa

North Tongu MP Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa has said the article 71 emoluments system must be demolished.

“I have long held the view that the entire Article 71 emoluments regime is in urgent need of a major overhaul”, he wrote on social media, adding: “We need to demolish this apartheid superstructure and create a new condition of service framework for public officials which are more equitable, transparent, justifiable and acceptable to the people who employ us”.

Also, former president John Mahama has said the recommendation by the Ntiamoa-Baidu committee to pay cabinet-level salaries to the wives of president Nana Akufo-Addo and vice-president Mahamudu Bawumia, is captured “as part of the emoluments of the president and the vice-president”, adding: “This seems like an attempt to sneak” Mrs Akufo-Addo and Mrs Bawumia “into the article 71 officeholders’ group”.

“This is clearly problematic”, the former president said in an article expressing reservations about the recommendation.

According to the 2020 presidential candidate of the main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), “It should be made clear, also, that the recommendation in respect of spouses in the Ntiamoa-Baidu Committee report, which covers the years January 7, 2017 to January 6, 2021, is solely in respect of the spouses of president Akufo-Addo and vice-president Bawumia”.

“The challenge, however, is that the spouses of the president and vice-president are not captured among Article 71 Officeholders and, therefore, there is no legal or constitutional basis for it”, he said.