The Deputy Minister for Information, Fatimatu Abubakar, has said the refund of ex-gratia to the state by Togbe Afede XIV must not put others on the advisory body in a bad light.
The traditional leader’s decision to return GHC365,000 he earned as ex-gratia as a council of state member has been met with mixed reactions.
“If you choose not to accept your actual salaries and retirement benefits, I don’t have any problem with it but It doesn’t mean those who are paid what’s due them have done something wrong,” Abubakar said on Asaase Radio’s weekend news and current affairs analysis show – The Forum – on Saturday.
“If you want to return it (ex-gratia) and there’s a legal and legitimate way of doing it, I don’t have any issue with it.
“But it doesn’t mean those who take their entitlements drawn from provisions of the 1992 Constitution have done anything wrong, have received an undue payment or have received an inappropriate payment,” she said.
Council of State work doesn’t merit ex-gratia
Togbe Afede XIV, the Agbogbomefia of the Asogli State has said the work of the council of state does not merit ex-gratia.
The traditional ruler believes serving on the council of state is a privilege and not an avenue to demand compensation.
Speaking in an interview with Accra-based Joy News, Togbe Afede said, “Let me subject this to a bit of analysis, that will respect also the situation in our country and the plight of the average Ghanaian. Some people must not be made to look like a different class of people, but coming to my particular case, the council of state work is part-time work.
“… The council of state work must not take you away from what you have already been doing and therefore it is not a case that you need to be compensated at the end of it all as if you are being thrown out of your job.
“So, I do not think that the work that I did merited it. But let me assure you that I was one of the most active participants in the council of state, and I was chairman of the economic and special development committee which never met without me.
“Nonetheless, I can’t deny the fact that it was part-time work and it was not a full-time work … and I did it for four years, that I deserve a colossal GHC365,000? That’s a big amount of money,” Togbe Afede XIV added.
Ghana must have clear policy on ex-gratia Samoa Addo
Meanwhile, a member of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Nii Kpakpo Samoa Addo has suggested to the government to come out with a clear cut policy on who can be entitled to ex-gratia.
Addo’s comment came after Togbe Afede XIV returned an ex-gratia of GHC365, 000 to the state for serving as a member of the council of state.
A clear cut policy, Mr. Samoa Addo noted, will bring clarity and finality to the debate on ex-gratia.
“There must be a concerted effort by the political elite that, if we want to encourage people to pay their taxes and tell Ghanaians that look politics is not about enriching ourselves that it is about public service.
“We need to rebrand the way we do politics, and that is where I think that the government must engage other political stakeholders and let us legislate this issue of ex-gratia. Let us come out with a clear cut legislation that defines who is entitled to the ex-gratia.
“We can’t have a situation where all politicians are bastardised on the account of ex-gratia, when we know that the non-political actors in that category are all lumped together and bastardised as if those in higher senior public service do not deserve to be paid from public service, some of them make a lot of sacrifice”, he added.
