We will buy food for free SHS students with the money

Mensah Thompson is the Executive Director of ASEPA

• ASEPA expressed its dissatisfaction with the announcement that the spouses of presidential officials return all the allowances paid to them since taking office.

• That said, ASEPA says the money will be beneficial in other ways

• One of these areas will be to support government policy on free HSS

Since the First Lady and the Second Lady are determined to return all allowances paid to them since taking office, we will simply channel this money to provide food for high school students, says ASEPA.

Alliance for Social Equity and Public Accountability executive director Mensah Thompson explained that while the two women feel that because of the public outcry that accompanied the announcement to move their benefits from allowances to equivalent salaries to cabinet ministers, they want to totally reject all the money that is theirs, that’s good news too.

He said the money would be used for other purposes, such as feeding students who are part of the current government’s Free Senior High School initiative.

“We have all been patient with the government, only for the government to go behind and say, ‘I’m not going to raise public sector wages, but I’m going to raise my wife’s salary from a stipend to a full salary in as long as This is what it is about the public blast and so if the First Lady and Second Lady say because of the public blast now that they don’t want the allowance anymore then they should pay it back, we need it.

“We will take the money and use it to buy food and feed the students of Free SHS who are now struggling to feed themselves as schools are about to open,” he said.

Mensah Thompson made this known in an interview with GhanaWeb following the announcement that Rebecca Akufo-Addo and Samira Bawumia had rejected Professor Yaa Ntiamoah Baidoo’s committee recommendations that their allowances be changed to salaries in the same range. as cabinet ministers.