GBA boss files suit at Supreme Court over payment of ex gratia to MPs

The Brong Ahafo Regional Chairman of the Ghana Bar Association (GBA) Alfred Tuah Yeboah has filed a suit at the Supreme Court challenging the approval of a 10% increase in emoluments for outgoing government appointees and other article 71 office holders.

He’s particularly asking if Members of Parliament should be paid retiring package every four years on expiration of a Parliament.

Presently, retiring Supreme Court and High Court Judges, the President and his vice, outgoing ministers and MPs are paid a lumpsum retiring packages, however the MPs they are paid such monies every four years.

But Lawyer Alfred Tuah Yeboah believes the treatment given the MPs is not in conformity with the constitution.

“If you’re an MP and you take your retirement benefit it means that you’re now out of parliament, that is the essence of retirement. Who in Ghana has gone on retirement three, four, or five times. If that was the intention of article 71, then that will mean that all Superior Court Judges will have to retire every four years, take their benefits and come back. A judge will take his retirement benefit when he/she gets to his retirement age of either 65 or 70, but MPs take it every four years…I think it’s unconscionable and that is not a rational of article 71, finetune it and make sure that people do not benefit unduly under the guise of retiring every four years.”