Former Chief of Staff under the Kufuor administration, Kwadwo Mpiani wants President John Mahama not to abolish emoluments for Article 71 office holders.
He argued that the framers of the country’s Constitution had very good reasons for making those provisions. “I believe the framers of the Constitution thought about this and I’m sure they might have had good reasons in doing that,” he argued.
Article 71 (1) and (2) of the 1992 Constitution stipulates that the determination of the salaries and allowances of the Executive, the Legislature and the Judiciary paid from the Consolidated Fund would be determined by the President, on the recommendations of a committee of not more than five persons appointed by him and acting upon the advice of the Council of State.
In determining the salaries of the President, his Ministers and political appointees, as well as the members of the Council of State, the Constitution states that Parliament will make that determination based on the advice of the same committee.
Article 71 office holders are made up of the President, the Vice President, the Speaker of Parliament, the Chief Justice and Justices of the Supreme Court. The rest are Members of Parliament (MPs), Ministers of State, political appointees and public servants with salaries charged to the Consolidated Fund but enjoying special constitutional privileges.
Over the years, there have been calls for a drastic reduction in the emolument of Article 71 office holders. Parliament was in 2012 tasked to review the salaries and emoluments approved by the House for members of the Executive.
Last week, President Mahama called on Organized Labour to support government’s decision to abolish emoluments for Article 71 office holders. He explained that the state can no longer continue to pay the current salaries for these office holders due to the pressure on the public purse.
In an interview with Citi News, the former Chief of Staff expressed doubts if the main problem with these emoluments is its sustainability or the lack thereof. He stated that Parliament and the Judiciary are to be independent of the Executive “so how will the Executive determine their wages, their emoluments?” “Are they going to re-negotiate with them because they hold the public purse? I think they might have looked at all these things,” he asked.
Mpiani stressed that the framers of the Constitution “retained this sort of divisions within government so if you abolish it, how is the President going to determine the salaries of the Judges of the High Court?” “Is he going to negotiate with them? If he is going to negotiate with them and there is a stalemate then what happens?”
Meanwhile, former Employment Minister, Austin Gamey is of the view that it is high time Article 71 was reviewed to ensure stop the brouhaha surrounding the ex-gratia of these officers.
According to him, over the years, there has been a clarion call by citizens for the emoluments to be abolished to have some equity in the system.
He said the nation seem to be calling for a situation in which there is no “indiscriminate arrangements for people under Article 71 and everybody is on social security, everybody will be on tier two, everybody will be on tier three and any other arrangement other than the arrangement of paying them gratuity.”
“This is what the President is opening up so that if it is approved by all of us that they should be on gratuity…that is what the President wants. He wants a liberal understanding about this process,” he added.
