First Lady, Rebecca Akufo-Addo, has indicated her decision not to accept any monies that have been allocated to be paid to her pursuant to the recommendations of the Ntiamoa-Badu Committee.
Pursuant to this decision, the First Lady has also decided to refund all monies paid to her as allowances from the date of the President’s assumption of office from January 2017 to date and which amounts to GH¢899,097.84.
A statement from the Office of the First Lady and signed by the Director of Communications, Korkor Bleboo indicated that Mrs. Akufo-Addo has never requested to be paid any allowance and only received that which existed and formally attached to her status.
The payment of allowances, the statement said, existed and was made to previous First Ladies in the course of the 4th Republic prior to Mrs. Akufo-Addo becoming the First Lady.
“That notwithstanding, the public discussion has been laced with some extremely negative opinions, in some cases, which she finds distasteful, seeking to portray her as a venal, self-serving and self-centred woman, who does not care about the plight of the ordinary Ghanaian.”
“In view of this, the First Lady, in consultation with the President of the Republic, has decided to refund all monies paid to her as allowances from the date of the President’s assumption of office, i.e., from January 2017 to date, amounting to GH¢899,097.84.”
“The First Lady has also decided not to accept any monies that have been allocated to be paid to her pursuant to the recommendations of the Ntiamoa-Baidu Committee, as approved by Parliament,” the statement said.
It noted, however, that this is a purely personal decision of Mrs. Akufo-Addo and is without prejudice to the rights of others and not to undermine the propriety of the process undertaken by Parliament.
“The First Lady does not want these matters to serve as a distraction from the good work that the President, who is currently touring the Savannah and Upper West regions, is doing to develop our dear nation.”
“The First Lady will continue to support the President, as she has always done, in the execution of the mandate entrusted to him by the good people of Ghana,” the statement added.
The decision follows recommendations of the Prof. Yaa Ntiamoa-Baidu Committee which, among other things, sought to regularise the payment of allowances to spouses of the current President and the Vice President, former
Heads of State, Presidents and Vice Presidents, respectively, as part of the privileges due to the President and Vice President under Article 71 of the Constitution.
The recommendations were approved by a bipartisan Parliaments mandated by the Constitution as the body that approves the emoluments of the Executive.
MyPublisher24.com