Minority challenges government on ex gratia

Frontpage, May 21, 2010
Story: Emmanuel Adu-Gyamerah
THE Minority in Parliament has challenged the government to cause the publication of the amount of money paid as ex gratia to each former Member of Parliament (MP) from both sides of the House.
In addition, the group said the publication of the names should also include former ministers and deputy ministers, with their signatures on the forms on which they appended their signatures, for Ghanaians to know who was paid what amount.
This was contained in a statement signed by the Minority Leader, Mr Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, in reaction to a front-page story in the Daily Graphic of May 12, 2010 which singled out Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu and four other NPP MPs for being overpaid their ex-gratia entitlements.
In that story, it was reported that the five had been ordered to refund the amount which constituted the overpayment.
“It is difficult to believe that such a report would emanate from the Auditor-General, for we believe he is capable of acting in a professional manner and would not push a purported preliminary finding to the press for publication,” the statement said.
It added that if any impropriety was detected in auditing, the person who was cited in the breach was first to be notified for his or her response, pointing out that in the case of the MPs mentioned in the said story, none had been notified up till now.
It explained that any payment or withdrawal from the Consolidated Fund, from which the gratuity was paid, was accompanied by a payment advice which provided a detailed analysis of the payment.
“In this regard, if under or overpayment is effected, there ought to be a basis of computation to establish the level of underpayment. Parliament has not been served the basis of the computation of the gratuity. None of the Minority MPs mentioned has been served any basis for computing the gratuity and the alleged resultant overpayment,” it noted.
The statement said since it was the President who finally authorised the payment of gratuity to former MPs and ministers, “if it was true that after all the fuss and ballyhoo about the gratuity what the President authorised to be paid is over and above what ought to have been paid, then what the President and the NDC administration have done amounts to nothing less than gross incompetence”.
It explained that interestingly, Mr Ernest Akubuor Debrah and Mr Samuel Obodai, some of the NPP MPs who were mentioned in the story for having been overpaid, had not even been paid the second instalment of their gratuity, even though it was being said that they had been overpaid by close to GH¢20,000 in just the first instalment.
It said since the Daily Graphic was the flagship of Ghanaian print journalism, the Minority would not want to believe that the paper would descend into the pit to do the bidding of the NDC.
“The paper ought to have discerned the mischievous intent behind the clamour to publish this otherwise puerile and diversionary piece. The plot was an amateurish prank which was born out of infantile gimmickry,” it added.
It stated that by now Ghanaians had recognised what had become the stock-in-trade of the NDC, adding that anytime the Minority organised a press conference, the government rushed to the press to introduce something new to divert the attention of the general public from the critical issues the Minority raised.
The statement called on the paper to unreservedly apologise to the Minority Leader, Mr Debrah, Mr Obodai, Mr Osei Ameyaw and Mr Christopher Addai who were all mentioned in the publication as having been overpaid.