The minority and majority caucus always disagree on everything except their emoluments, specifically, ex-gratia. Ever since Ghanaians begun confronting the “Article 71 office holders, prominent Members of Parliament have come out to defend the amount of money they have gotten so far. Alban Bagbin took to the defense of Members of Parliament and his explanation was that the MPs use that Ex-Gratia money for their campaign expenditure and even more just to retain their seats. Sam George also described the ex-gratia as the salary differentials of Members of Parliament.
Today, the leader of the Majority Caucus, Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu, who doubles as the Member of Parliament for the Suame constituency, has given his take on ex-gratia. He stated boldly that Members of Parliament do not receive Ex-Gratia. However, he explained that what they receive is called “gratuity”.
“People today are talking of the payment of ex-gratia being given to Members of Parliament, Ministers, and so on. There is nothing like ex-gratia for Members of Parliament. It is a gratuity that is paid to Members of Parliament, not ex-gratia. The difference must be known to people”, he explained.
Is this not surprising? It is surprising when Members of Parliament, who were sent to Parliament to help protect the public purse, mount a spirited defense on why they should and ought to receive outrageous amounts of monies as emoluments whiles the ordinary man on the street suffer to make even one-tenth of the amount a Member makes in four years.
For fear of having ,what they describe as, meagre salary, being reduced by the executive, they keep quiet and allow the President, Vice President and other take more than enough.
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