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Ghana Center for Democratic Development (CDD) Executive Director Professor H. Kwasi Prempeh asked that if the political class has decided to pay the spouses of the president and vice president, then “why not” pay the spouses of the President of Parliament and the Chief Justice too?
Professor Prempeh asserts that the political class cannot, without a bill tabled in parliament, use article 71 of the 1992 Constitution to smuggle in the payment of salaries, allowances or emoluments to presidential spouses .
It recently emerged, through anti-graft activist Vitus Azeem, that the section 71 emoluments committee had recommended the payment of salaries equivalent to those of a cabinet minister to the spouses of the president and vice-president. President.
Professor Prempeh, however, notes in a brief social media post that: “The mandate of a section 71 emoluments committee is limited to recommending the salaries and other benefits and privileges of office holders specified in the article 71, sections (1) and (2) ”.
This list of holders, he noted, “is exhaustive”.
The Article 71 Emoluments Committee, according to him, “does not have the power to recommend the payment of an allowance or an emolument to the first or second spouses, because they are not offices or holders of charge of article 71 ”.
“And, of course, the Constitution neither requires nor obliges a president or vice president to have a spouse; singles and singles are welcome, ”he noted.
He said that “if the government wants to pay the first and / or the second spouse of the public revenue, it must present a bill to that effect”, insisting: “The clear scope of Articles 108 and 178 of the Constitution is that Parliament cannot, on its own initiative, initiate or approve the payment of such emoluments (which would necessarily be paid from public funds) without a bill to this effect emanating and being introduced by the government and duly adopted.
Politicians, Professor Prempeh noted, “cannot use the Section 71 process to smuggle wages or allowances for first and second spouses.”
“If this is what they want, they must get the government to present a bill to this effect, and thus allow and ensure public participation in the legislative debate on this issue,” he reiterated.
“Anyway, why stop at the first and second spouses? Why not the third spouse (since the president can sometimes act as president) or the fourth (so that the chief justice, too, can take advantage of certain marital privileges at the expense of the taxpayers), and so on ”, he asked himself.
“And while we’re at it, should we also subject the first and second spouses to the law on the declaration of assets? ”
“Indeed, when we place the first and second spouses on the public wage bill, we essentially convert their roles into ‘public functions’ within the meaning of section 295. Is that the idea? ” He asked.
Meanwhile, the main opposition party, the National Democratic Congress (NDC), told President Nana Akufo-Addo in a petition that the decision to pay his wife, First Lady Rebecca Akufo-Addo and Ms. Samira Bawumia, wife of the vice-president, salaries equivalent to those of the ministers, shows that “clearly, you lost it”.
“Governments around the world are elected to work for people and not otherwise. Your Excellency, your government is not working for all Ghanaians but for a few, mainly family and friends, ”said the petition presented to Jubilee House during Tuesday’s march for justice.
He noted, “With each passing day, you and your government are showing more and more examples of insensitivity to the cries of Ghanaians,” adding, “The latest being your decision to pay your wife Rebecca and Samira Bawumia. equivalent salaries to cabinet ministers at a time like this. Clearly you have lost it ”.
The party march aimed to demand justice for the lynched social media activist Ibrahim Kaaka Mohammed and the subsequent murder of two protesters who marched for justice for the murdered activist.
They were shot dead by soldiers who were helping the police to disperse the demonstrators.
— classfm
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