The payment of EX-GRATIA to Members of Parliament (MPs) who CONTINUE TO WIN THEIR SEATS and RETURN to the August House after election is a strange occurrence but permitted by a strange 1992 Constitution.
This MUST STOP!
Ghana needs money for lots of projects!
That practice needs to be abolished, as it is a major drain on the national budget of a country that still “begs” for loans and grants before it can undertake any major infrastructure project and comparably very discriminatory!
I believe Ex-Gratia should be paid to ONLY LAWMAKERS who are EXITING Parliament after serving their term or terms! (Even the amount should be slashed down!)
MPs who continue to win elections must be paid no such money so long as they remain in the House to redraw their salaries as MPs and other privileges which come with their stay in there.
These huge amounts of money which are paid to politicians as part of their emoluments, come nowhere near what equally important employees of the state take when they retire after serving many years.
To bring some level of fairness and equity in the sector, the state MUST HALT THIS PRACTICE AND WAIT UNTIL ONE IS DONE AND IS LEAVING PARLIAMENT FOR GOOD!
Currently, in Ghana, political party is a second religion which most Ghanaians belong to just as they belong to either Christianity or Islam.
You may disagree with this statement, but it is a sad reality.
Once you explore the cities, villages, and the zongos it becomes apparent that nationalism is dead and buried, and we are now left with the idea of “us versus them”!
Amongst these, the majority of Ghanaians wallow in abject poverty with no hope of prosperity for themselves and their unborn generations, while the political class and their families and friends enjoy an abundance of wealth daily!
YES DAILY!
For instance, how do you justify a constitutional provision that allows an Hon. MP, Minister or government appointee to receive an Ex Gratia payment at the end of a 4-year service term that is a million folds more than what a teacher or a nurse will receive as pension from SSNIT at the end of his/her 30 years of service to the nation?
THIS IS CRAZY!
Are we saying every Ghanaian must be a politician before they can earn a decent wage or pension for themselves in Ghana?😳
Or are we saying other professions do not matter and are not services to the nation?
An MP who serves a four (4) year term in parliament and gets to win a second term should not be paid the ex-gratia for his first term served. Ex-gratia payment should be limited ONLY to MPs exiting the house after their first term.
So What Happened in 1992 to have warranted this?
The late Jeremiah Rawlings wanted to Secure himself financially as well as his Political friends.
Thanks to JJ Rawlings Article 68(5) of the 1992 Constitution exempt Gh presidents from paying taxes.
And after their term of office, they receive Ex Gratia, which includes a house, body guards, house allowance, car and maintenance allowance with a salary of about 58,000Gh monthly!
This also extended to the ministers!
Rawlings who came in the name of a better Ghana made sure that his atrocities of killing innocent people was not prosecuted and that he, and every president after him, gets to live a comfortable life. (By creating defensive clauses in the constitution which protected him and as usual his friends in government)
Add all the ministers and presidents and you realize how much the country’s coffers is being drained!
None of the democracies we look up to pays a single Ex Gratia to any former president!
Rawlings was worth over $60 million after office!
Well the man is dead… I just brought him in to explain my historical point.
What happened in 2019 when the latest speaker of Parliament Alban Bagbin, then a presidential contestant (aspirant) of the NDC Spoke on Ex-Gratia?
In an interview with Citi FM, Alban Bagbin asked Ghanaians to give him the power (permission to lead the NDC in the recently held 2020 elections) to scrap the end-of-tenure benefits for certain politicians known as ex-gratia only if he becomes the President.
According to him, the payment of ex gratia was not serving the purpose for which it was created, and was instead causing a drain on the national finances.
This is a man who has served in Parliament since 1993!
So his assertion should be held in high regard!
Mr Bagbin said that any entitlements due these public office holders should be outlined in their contracts with the state when they serve in office.
“As President, I will do away with the whole idea of ex gratia because I don’t think that it’s serving the purpose for which it was established. It’s a complete waste. It’s a contract employment and the contract will identify your entitlements but not ex gratia.”
Article 71 (1) and (2) of the 1992 Constitution stipulates that the salaries and allowances of the Executive, the Legislature, and the Judiciary paid from the Consolidated Fund would be determined by the President, on the recommendations of a committee of not more than five persons appointed by him and acting upon the advice of the Council of State.
Article 71 office holders include the President, the Vice-President, the Speaker of Parliament, the Chief Justice and Justices of the Supreme Court.
The rest are Members of Parliament (MPs), Ministers of State, political appointees and public servants with salaries charged to the Consolidated Fund but enjoying special constitutional privileges.’
In 2017, a Ghanaian lawyer, Elikplim L. Agbemava, went to the Supreme Court seeking clarification on some of the benefits enjoyed by the Article 71 office holders.
The lawyer wanted presidential staffers who benefit from salaries, allowances, and privileges like the Article 71 office holders, to be stripped off such gratuities claiming it “is inconsistent with Article 71 and therefore unconstitutional.”
Lawyer Agbemava believed the true intention of Article 114 (1) of the constitution is for ex-gratia to be paid to only MPs who have retired from or exited parliament.
But the Attorney General in her statement of case filed on the 19th of May, 2017, argued the private legal practitioner got the meaning of the Article wrong!
Attorney General Gloria Akuffo argued that the ‘comma’ after the ‘eligible‘ in Article 114 (1) is an indication that a serving Member of Parliament qualifies to receive ex-gratia which should be paid every four years!
“It is clear that presence of the comma after eligible indicates that a pause and the words after the comma are a qualification: on the word eligible and therefore a Member of Parliament who has served for four years is eligible for gratuity to be paid him,” the AG argued in a 10 page statement of case.
Alban Bagbin, who was then (Around January 2019) the second deputy Speaker of Parliament and the Member of Parliament for Nadowli Kaleo, believed that the provisions in the Constitution which grant the President immunity from prosecution and paying taxes should be revised.
He argued that in a country that values the rule of law and is committed to fighting corruption, it doesn’t make sense for the incumbent or former President not to be subject to prosecution and conviction should they flout any laws.
“One of the things I want to see in our Constitution is for that immunity for our Presidents to be removed. They should be the first to be subjected to the law, why should they be exempted? Like [immunity from] paying taxes, commission of crimes and all those things don’t make us all equal before the law. We need to use some of these things to fight corruption. The President should pay tax, why not? Leadership by example.”
But it seems Ghanaian Parliamentarians want to extend the benevolent hands of this Ex-Gratia to members of the Executive too!
Upon all their benefits!
Just 3 weeks ago, Parliament was set to approve the emoluments for Article 71 office holders in the Executive.
The intended action was on the agenda of the house when they met on Monday, December 14, 2020.
In June 2020, the President inaugurated a five-member Committee to make recommendations on the salaries, allowances and privileges for article 71 officeholders.
The report of the Committee was yet to be presented to Parliament but the former Speaker, Prof Mike Oquaye said the house must make a determination on the matter before the house is finally dissolved. (I can’t tell what happened afterwards)
Eeeeiiiii Ghana….
Parliamentarians are REALLY ENJOYING!
Whiles Public Servants are “Chewing Financial Pepper!” 😢😢
🇬🇭Ghana Deserves Better!
🇬🇭May God bless Our Homeland Ghana
Research by: Henry Kwadwo Amoako (Ghanaian Historian and Social Scientist)
The youth must be help