Government urged to take over payment of ex-gratia

Saltpond, Nov 1, GNA - Daasebre Kwebu Ewusi VII, a

Member of the Council of State, has appealed to the government

to take over the payment of end of service benefits to members of

the Metropolitan, Municipal and District assemblies (MMDAS) Daasebre Kwebu Ewusi, who is the Omanhene of Abeadze

Dominase and President of the Central Region House of Chiefs,

said by government taking over the payment of such benefits, the

assemblies would be relieved of the problems they encountered in

raising money to pay. He said that would also bring uniformity into what each

member would receive. Daasebre Kwebu Ewusi made the call at the last meeting of the

assembly before its dissolution to pave way for the district level

election in December. The call emanated from the heated debate between the

assembly members and the administration including the Municipal

Chief Executive as to how much should be paid to the 72

members. The members were demanding not less that GHc1, 000.00

whilst the administration pegged it at GHc500.00 Through intervention of the Council of State Member, the

members reluctantly agreed to take GHc600.00 Daasebre Kwebu Ewusi said asking the assemblies to pay their

members end-of-service benefits from the internally generated

fund would be difficult to sustain as their IGF were not enough to

meet their recurrent expenditure. He said the assemblies were doing a good work to promote the

decentralization concept, therefore paying members end of service

benefits by government would be in the right direction. Mr Henry Kweku Hayfron, the Municipal Chief Executive,

appealed to the Minister of Local Government and Rural

Development to always come out with what must be paid by the

assemblies to their members before dissolution of the assemblies. He enumerated developments projects undertaken by the

assembly over the past two years and commended Mr. George

Kuntu Blankson and Mr Aquinas Tawiah Quansah, the two

members of parliament for the area, for the good work they had

been doing to improve the living standard of the people. Mr Quansah expressed concern about attempts by some

assembly members to introduce partisan politics into the assembly

and advised such people to stop it since it would not augur well

for the advancement of the assembly. Mr Kofi Aikins, the Presiding member of the assembly who

declared the assembly dissolved, thanked the members, the

administration, MCE and the MPs for their cooperation that had

contributed to the success of the assembly.