Double Salary Allegations Against Some Former Appointees

Parliament is again in the news for the wrong reasons, this time around allegations of some appointees of the previous government taking double salaries. The August House is yet to dust off the fall out of similar allegations of bribery at the appointments committee. Although a Committee set up by the Speaker of Parliament has cleared the House of any wrongdoing, that perception is still lingering in the minds of many Ghanaians. These fresh allegations defeat the very purpose on which our democratic system is built. There are different systems of democracy being practiced all over the world. The most notable one worthy of mention is the Parliamentary and Presidential systems of governance being practiced by the UK and USA respectively.

Under the Parliamentary system, the Prime Minister who is the Head of government is elected from parliament. But under the Presidential system, the President who is the Head of State is elected by the citizenry through a popular vote. He then appoints his ministers outside parliament. Under this System, there is a clear separation of powers as the Legislature apart from being tasked with making laws is also to keep the executive on its toes. Ghana is practising a form of a hybrid system where the President is elected by a popular vote but is mandated by the constitution to appoint more than 50 percent of his ministers from Parliament. One of the arguments for adopting this system is to protect the Public purse. This is because Members of Parliament (MPs) who double as Ministers are not paid twice but receive one salary, either as an MP or a Minister. It is for this reason that allegations of some MPs who doubled as Ministers in the previous administration taking double salary is worrying. This has dented the image of Parliament which in recent times has been in the news for the wrong reasons. It is widely alleged that some MPs provided separate accounts to Parliament and the Accountant General to be paid salaries as MPs and ministers at the same time. If that information is accurate and per the Prof Dora Francisca Edu-Buandoh Presidential Emoluments Committee Report, some of the officials took not less than 30,000 cedis a month from 2013 to 2016. The committee set up by ex-president John Mahama indicated that Cabinet Minister-MPs were entitled to 16,432 cedis while Cabinet Minister non MPs were entitled to 15,739 cedis. Members of Parliament were also paid between 13,686 to 16,036 depending on whether the person was an ordinary MP or in leadership. What has been the tradition is that MPs who are also ministers should take just a top-up after they were appointed as ministers under ex-president John Mahama.

It is good the Criminal Investigations Department of the Ghana Police Service has taken up the matter. This will reveal which of the implicated past government officials took double salaries or top-ups. Some of the implicated MPs have blamed Institutional failure for the double salary saga. Others too say it is politically motivated as it's an attempt by the government to silence them. This political witch hunting argument by the implicated MPs is unfortunate. It's time constitutionally mandated institutions such as the CID are left to do their work. I hope the CID will be professional in its dealings to dispel the witch hunting argument. The MPs should report the irregularities on their payroll to the appropriate quarters since they had an idea as to how much salary they were entitled to at the end of the month.

The Controller and Accoutants General Department cannot be blamed. This is because there is a separate payroll for MPs and Ministers. MPs are paid in Parliament and Ministers are paid by the Controller and Accountants General department. In the case of a Minister-MP the appointee has the option of choosing one outfit from which he or she will draw salary. If that person chooses to draw a Minister’s salary he or she provides the accounts details to the Accountant General’s Department for payment into the account and vice versa if the person wants to be paid as an MP. If those same persons find their names on an MP’s list of salary drawers, the Accountant General’s Department cannot be held accountable for that. The Current administration should take a CUE from this saga and report to the appropriate authorities any anomalies on their payroll. We all have a responsibility to protect the public purse.

BY: BRIGHT NTRAMAH, A JOURNALIST.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Need For Ghanaians To Support The 2021 Budget

Showing compassion to the less privileged

One Year Of Coronavirus In Ghana