Ghana’s Parliament has approved the report of the Presidential Committee on salaries and emoluments for Article 71 office holders including ex-gratia for outgoing President John Dramani Mahama.
Details of the report are currently scanty because the approval was made in a closed-door meeting.
Parliamentarians deliberated throughout the week after they resumed from their break on Tuesday.
Per Ghana’s laws, Parliament and the Executive have the mandate to review each other’s ex-gratia.
A member of Parliament on the ticket of the outgoing National Democratic Congress, Sampson Ahi on Thursday challenged NPP MPs to reject their end of service benefits if they think President Mahama should not be passing last-minute agreements.
The NPP have expressed concerns about President Mahama’s approval of fresh contracts and appointments despite having less than a month to vacate office and hand over power to president-elect, Nana Akufo-Addo in January 2017.
Speaking on Eyewitness News , Sampson Ahi who is the MP for the Bodi constituency dared the NPP MPs to turn down their ex-gratia if it’s finally approved.
“If they are arguing that we are doing last minute loans or programmes what do they say to the fact that we are now working on approving our ex-gratia. The ex-gratia of parliamentarians must be approved by the executive and Parliament will also approve that of the executive. As we speak we haven’t done it. So why are they not saying that because there is a new government we shouldn’t allow the outgoing president to approve the ex-gratia for the parliamentarians?”
“Why are we behaving as if, if NDC does anything, it is criminal but the NPP will do it and nobody can say anything about it,” he quizzed.
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