TUC questions why the spouses of the president and his vice be paid salaries.

 

The Trades Union Congress - TUC (Ghana) has in a press release on 11th July 2021 raised concerns on why the spouses of the president of Ghana and his vice be paid salaries. 

This happened after Parliament approved a recommendation that requires that the spouses of the president and his vice be paid monthly salaries at the level paid to Cabinet Ministers which includes arrears dating back from 2017.

According to the union, since the spouses of the president and his vice are not covered under Article 71 of Ghana's constitution, there is no need for them to receive salaries. They stated that, office holders and all job holders in the public service, including presidential staffers as stated in Article 71 of Ghana's constitution are assigned to various official duties and responsibilities and therefore must be paid, however, the spouses of the president and his vice have not been assigned to any official duties and responsibilities and so they do not qualify to receive salaries which is from the public purse.

They also stated emphatically that, Ghanaians appreciate what ever the first and second ladies do in respect to women's rights, children's rights among others. However they are not lawfully assigned to official duties and so with that reason, they (Trades Union Congress) are not in support of the idea of paying the spouses of the president and his vice monthly salaries even if the Ntiamoa-Baidu's Committee recommend such idea.

Advising the president, they stated that, he should use the powers bestowed on him by law as president to stop the idea of paying salaries to his wife, Rebecca Akkufo and that of his vice's Samira Bawumia untill they are officially assigned duties and responsibilities. And that he should also ensure that the monies paid to his wife and that of his vice's be refunded immediately.

They again advised the president to start a process towards forming a committee which should comprise of experts from the various fields to advise the government on salaries for job holders so as to ensure fairness because, according to them it looks as if the system favours politicians only at the expense of job holders.

They concluded by stating that when the spouses of the president and his vice are assigned to official duties and responsibilities, that then will qualify them to receive salaries, however after that, the executive arm of government should not forget to assign official duties to the spouses of the Speaker of Parliament and the spouses of the Chief Justice respectively because they can also perform official duties.

Filed: Eric Denubuo