An Executive Member of the Centre for Democratic Transitions, Ghana, Professor Kwamena Ahwoi has waded into the ongoing debate on the double salary saga praying President Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo to halt the current police investigations.
Prof. Ahwoi in a letter to the President attributed the double salary and overpayment to Article 71 Office Holders in the former President John Mahama administration to systemic and structural flaws and should, therefore, not be criminalised.
Government is currently investigating Article 71 Office Holders who allegedly received double and overpayments but Prof. Ahwoi stated: “Excellency, these problems will recur in the future if we do not acknowledge them as systemic and structural failures and rather insist on treating them as criminal matters”.
According to Prof Ahwoi, he was part of Professor Dora Francesca Edu-Buandoh Presidential Committee on Emoluments (PCEs) which was appointed by Former President John Dramani Mahama to make recommendations for Article 71 Office Holders in the Sixth Government of the Fourth Republic which was in office between January 2013 and January 2017.
“My intention in writing this letter is to draw your attention to certain systemic and structural flaws in the method of paying some of the Article 71 Office Holders which the Committee identified in the course of its work and which I believe are at the heart of the present problem regarding the alleged double payment and overpayment of salaries and other emoluments to those Office holders”, he stated.
“Unfortunately, the consequences of those flaws are being treated as criminal matters and have become the subject of current police criminal investigations”, Prof. Ahwoi added.
These problems according to Prof. Ahwoi occurred in the past, even in former President John Agyekum Kufour’s administration and the late President John Evans Atta Mills was compelled to write to the then Speaker of Parliament on the issue.
Source: Graphic.com
