Ghana’s First Lady, Mrs Rebecca Akufo-Addo has offered to refund all the allowances she has received since the president assumed office in 2017, following a public outcry over salaries.
This was captured in a statement signed by Korkor Bleboo, Director of Communications at her Office.
The Statement from Mrs Akufo-Addo stated that “the First Lady in consultation with the President of the Republic has decided to refund all the 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 GHS899,097.84.”
“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. She is doing this as a purely personal decision, without prejudice to the rights of others, and not to undermine the propriety of the process undertaken by Parliament.”
In the statement, Bleboo argued that the First Lady did not request to be paid any allowance and that “She only received that which existed and attached to her status, albeit informally.”
The statement also explained that Rebecca took the decision because the discussions that greeted the announcement of the allowance payments have been laced with some extremely negative opinions, which she finds distasteful as such commentaries only seek “to portray her as a venal, self-seeking and self-centered woman, who does not care about the plight of the ordinary Ghanaian.”
This comes on the back of recommendations by the Prof Yaa Ntiamoa-Baidu-led Presidential Committee on Emoluments for Article 71 officeholders.
The committee had recommended that the First Lady be paid a salary equivalent to a Cabinet Minister who is a Member of Parliament (MP) while her husband is in office and the Payment of a salary equivalent to 80% of the salary of a Minister of State who is a Member of Parliament (MP) if the spouse served one full term as President or 100% of the salary of a Minister of State who is a Member of Parliament (MP) if the spouse served two or more full terms as President.
The committee further suggested that the Second Lady be paid a salary equivalent to a Cabinet Minister who is not an MP while her husband is in office and the Payment of a salary equivalent to 80% of the salary of a Minister of State who is not a Member of Parliament (MP) if the spouse served one full term as President or 100% of the salary of a Minister of State who is a Member of Parliament (MP) if the spouse served two or more full terms as Vice President.
Second Lady of Ghana, Samira Bawumia also announced that she too would refund all monies paid to her as allowance since 2017.
Last week, Ghanaians expressed outrage at the decision by MPs to approve salaries for the wives of the president and vice-president for the supportive role they play.
Some feel the government is spending taxpayers’ money in the wrong place.
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