Member of Parliament for Builsa South, Clement Apaak has said the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) is not against the payment of allowance to presidential spouses as has been done in the past but rather against the recommendation of the Ntiamoa-Baidu committee to pay them salaries equivalent to those of cabinet ministers as if they are public servants when they are not.
Dr Apaak, therefore, said if First Lady, Mrs Rebecca Akufo-Addo, and Mrs Samira Bawumia, the wife of Vice-President Mahamudu Bawumia, have decided to refund their allowances received since 2017 to the state following public outcry over the recommendation of the Ntiamoa-Baidu committee, then they do so out of their own will.
He said once they have taken the decision to refund the monies, they must do so transparently and provide evidence that they have, indeed, refunded the monies to the state.
Speaking on the Class Morning Show on Class91.3FM on Tuesday, 13 July 2021, the opposition lawmaker said: “The issue at hand has nothing to do with the long-standing practice of providing quarterly allowances in support of our first ladies beginning from Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings to Madam Rebecca Akufo-Add; that is not the issue”.
“That support has always gone to them through budgetary allocation made to the office of government machinery for their activities and we know they perform some functions, although those functions are not official and they are not to carry themselves as though they are public servants who are to account to members of the public; that is not the issue”, he clarified.
“The issue has to do with the recommendation that Prof Ntiamoa-Baidu has made for them to be paid, by and large, salary as a cabinet minister, MP rate for the First Lady and cabinet minister non-MP rate for the second lady”, he explained.
“That is what the issue is about, that is the concern Ghanaians are raising. So, if she has chosen to refund the quarterly allowances that she has been receiving from 2017 to date to the public chest, that is her own choice”, Dr Apaak noted.
He said: “Nobody has spoken against that and if she decided to do so, it should be done transparently: let’s see the evidence to show that those monies have been refunded to the consolidated fund, then we know that what she said she will do she has done”, he told Kofii Oppong Asamoah.
Contrasting the issues further, Dr Apaak reiterated that “let’s not mix the two, nobody is against the traditional method, time-tested, available to support first ladies through budgetary allocations made through government machinery”, adding: “what Ghanaians are up in arms against is this new intrusion that seeks to give them salaries illegally, or assigning them positions as though they are public servants captured under article 71. The two are not the same.”
There has been huge public outcry over the recommendation of the Ntiamoa-Baidu committee to pay the first lady and wife of the vice-president cabinet minister-level salaries.
This has forced the two women, Mrs Akufo-Addo and Mrs Bawumia to reject any monies the state intends to pay them monthly.
They have also issued separate notices to refund all the allowances they have taken from 2017 since their husbands took office.
They have, however, promised to continue their humanitarian work to support the vulnerable in society.
Source: Modern Ghana