Uproar! Over President, MPs Jumbo Pay

President John Dramani Mahama’s directive to Parliament to stop the payment of the new emoluments to him and his ministers has been dismissed as a mere public relations stunt to deflect the intense negative fallout from the general public over what has been described as outrageous.

The Chairman of the Subsidiary Legislation Committee of Parliament, Osei Kwame Prempeh, in a telephone conversation with DAILY GUIDE yesterday, described the directive signed by the President’s secretary, J. K. Bebaako-Mensah, as “hypocritical”.

Also, anti-corruption campaigner and a Member of Parliament for Asikuma-Odoben- Brakwa, Paul Collins Appiah-Ofori, has taken a swipe at President Mahama’s rejection, describing it as “dishonest,” since the President was aware of the salaries allocated to him and his ministers before MPs endorsed them in their last sitting before Parliament rose last week.

“The document originated from his office to Parliament. Parliament did not manufacture the report. If the government brings business documents, they are addressed to the Speaker and the Clerk to Parliament causes it to be laid and referred to a committee,” Mr Appiah-Ofori told Citi FM on Monday.

“If the president is saying this, then he is fraudulent. The document came from him. Even if it was wrong, why did he bring it?”

Osei Kwame Prempeh said if President Mahama really wanted to place a cap on the new emoluments to the Executive arm of government, he would have directed his attention at the Prof. Marian Ewurama Addy committee which proposed the new pay package, and not Parliament.

The ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) statement putting the pay on hold gave the impression that the legislative arm of government was to blame for the unusual salary hike.

For instance, Fred Agbenyo, a communications team member of the ruling party, was quoted as saying that people’s representatives in Parliament were responsible for offering the President the enormous salary.

But Mr Prempeh noted that that argument was invalid because Parliament did not have the power to determine the salary of the Executive. Last week, the Majority Leader in Parliament, Cletus Avorka, informed the legislators about the recommendations of the Prof. Ewurama Addy committee.

In the recommendation, President Mahama would be taking home GH¢12,000 a month; Vice President Kwesi Amissah-Arthur takes GH¢10,500 while his ministers and their deputies will earn between GH¢9,000 and GH¢8000, just like presidential staffers and aides.

Barely three days after the news broke, President Mahama’s secretary issued a statement to halt the payment.

Cabinet Approval

According to sources, a cabinet meeting chaired by the President approved the new pay rise for the executive with the assurance from the Finance Minister that they had enough resources to effect the back pay from 2009 to date.

“The President is being hypocritical, if he believes the emolument was not right, he approved that of Parliament, didn’t he? And he forwarded it to Parliament and if he thought that what the Prof. Ewurama Addy Committee has decided is too big, he ought to have referred it back to the committee to do some work about that, not Parliament,” Mr Prempeh said.

“How can that happen; the committee was appointed by the President. When they finished their work, they gave it to the President. It is from the Office of the President that the document would be sent to Parliament. So the President knew everything that was in it.”

The Pay Check

The new salaries would take a retrospective effect from 2009, implying that the President and his ministers would be paid salaries of 48 months including November, multiplied by their new respective salaries.

President Mahama’s total take home would be GH¢501,000. When broken down, President Mahama would be taking home GH¢441, 000 as his total pay from the period January 2009 to June 2012 when he was Vice President.

He would also take home an additional GH¢60, 000 from July 2012 when he became substantive President following the death of President John Evans Atta Mills till December 2012.

Vice President Paa Kwesi Bekoe Amissah-Arthur would be taking home only GH¢52, 500 by December 2012, because he was sworn in as Vice President in August 2012.

At a monthly salary of GH¢9, 000 for 23 Ministers of State for 48 months, the total emolument would peak at approximately GH¢10million while the over 30 deputy ministers at GH¢8,000 would be GH¢9.6 million.

The 230 parliamentarians would be taking home GH¢80 million.

It is based on these figures that their ex-gratia would be calculated and paid by January 7, 2013 when a new president and government would take over.

The Process

Confidential Executive Summary from the Prof. Ewurama Addy committee available to DAILY GUIDE indicates that the committee conducted extensive consultations before issuing its final report.

The consultation encompassed government institutions such as the Ministry of Finance, Controller and Accountant General, Ghana Statistical Service and the Fair Wages Commission. The consultation also included private institutions such as the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) and the Centre for Democratic Development (CDD).

According to the committee, made up of eminent personalities such as Dr. Gheysika Adombire Agambilla, Dr. Anthony Yaw Baah, Mrs Marian Barno, and Nana Kobina Nketsia, in its broad consultations, it discovered that salaries of the Article 71 office holders had not been increased since 2007.

“There was therefore the need for regular automatic adjustment in salaries of these office holders,” the committee stated on page two of its executive summary.

President Mahama has okayed a GH¢7,200 pay rise for parliamentarians in a “scratch my back, I scratch your own” arrangement.

This is in accordance with constitutional provisions in Article 71 of the 1992 Constitutions where the Ghanaian Parliament would reciprocate the gesture by also endorsing executive’s salary.

For executive salaries, the President is required to appoint a committee not fewer than five members to determine how much the Executive would be paid. In 2009, President Mills appointed the Ewurama Addy committee.