The minority spokesperson on Finance, Cassiel Ato Forson, has blamed Parliament for the brouhaha over the raging presidential spousal salaries.
Speaking to the media, Ato Forson, argued the decision by the President to forward the recommendation to parliament for approval despite lack of legal basis is to blame for the current development.
The ranking member of the finance committee also accused the first lady of rejecting the allowances paid her out of anger.
He urged past presidential spouses against following suit and faulted parliament for approval of the Professor Yaa Ntiamoah-Baidu committee report.
“Regrettably, I wasn’t in the house that day, this was approved in the dying days of the last Parliament…most MPs had lost, infact half had lost and so were not there and some of us were preparing for the new parliament and with all the euphoria and so you don’t expect people to pay attention that day. Most people, it will surprise you to know, did not even see the report that was approved…and that is something that we need to accept.
“But you see we are building democracy and there is something called continuous improvement, and you learn from today’s mistakes so whatever we got wrong, we can only learn from it and improve it.”
In a reaction, Nhyiaeso MP Stephen Amoah justified the decision by the first and second ladies to refund their allowances. According to him the public outcry over emoluments for the presidential spouses and other officeholders is misplaced.
Mr. Amoah disclosed he spends on the average 10,000 cedis a week to satisfy demands from his constituents.
He added that the public pressure which has compelled the spouses to refund the money which he believes, they deserve, will demoralize politicians from taking initiatives to better the lives of Ghanaians.
The First Lady, Rebecca Akufo-Addo on Tuesday officially made a refund payment to the government for allowances given to her from January, 7 to date
The payment was made in form of a cheque from a CBG account number 000002. The payment follows an earlier announcement to pay the monies back to the state. She also said she does not want any form of financial assistance from the state.
A statement by her office to the Presidency through the Chief of Staff Frema Opare noted that a full refund of GHC899, 097.04 had been made.
This is barely twenty-four hours after Mrs. Akufo-Addo First Lady revealed she would be refunding the money.
Source: Ghana/Starrfm.com.gh/103.5FM
