CAGD fails to deduct 10% Jan. salaries of Mahama & appointees

The Controller and Accountant General’s Department (CAGD) failed to deduct 10 per cent of January salaries of President John Dramani Mahama and his appointees, an official has told TV3's Daniel Opoku.

The President and his Vice, Paa Kwesi Amissah-Arthur, as well as all his appointees promised to take a 10 per cent pay cut last year.

The amount accrued was agreed to be paid into a special fund for the construction of Community Health Programme and Service (CHPS) compounds in the rural communities.

The announcement of this initiative was first made by the Minister of Finance, Seth Terkper, on Tuesday, November 19, 2013, when he read out the 2014 budget statement in Parliament.

But Gilbert Nyaledzigbor, the Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the Controller and Accountant General’s Department, says the Department received correspondence from the Finance Ministry for deduction quite late.

As a result, the Department failed to effect deduction in the first month of the year.

“We are now making arrangements to deduct those arrears in one month,” Mr Nyaledzigbor said.

He, however, stated that the Department has deducted the pay cuts for the month of February, with the monies to be deposited in an account at the Bank of Ghana.

“Since we could not deduct in January, but did in February, it presupposes that we should deduct in arrears,” he suggested though stressing; “We will definitely deduct.”