PARLIAMENT APPROVES PAYMENT OF SALARIES TO THE WIVES OF PRESIDENT AND VICE PRESIDENT. (Checkout)

The first lady Rebecca-Akufo-Addo together with the second lady Samira Bawumia will be on the payroll of the government.

This decision to pay them was made after the government adopted a recommendation by an emolument committee which was approved by the seventh parliament

Mr Oppong Nkrumah said the Emoluments Committee, set up in 2019 and chaired by Professor Yaa Ntiamoa-Baidu, as part of its recommendations, proposed that the allowances given to the spouses of the President and Vice President be formally included in the review of the entitlements for the executive.

“That recommendation was then forwarded to the Seventh Parliament which then gave the approval and it is now to be implemented. It is, therefore, not true as it is being circulated that the President has approved of emoluments to the First Lady and Second Lady,” he stressed.

The Emolument Committee

The five-member committee was set up in June 2019 by President Akufo-Addo to make recommendations to him and to Parliament on the salaries and allowances payable, and the facilities and privileges available to article 71 office holders.

Under the chairmanship of Prof. Ntiamoa-Baidu and which also had former Majority Leader and former Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, Mr Abraham Ossei Aidooh, the Chief Executive of the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission, Dr Edward Kwapong, the current Director-General of the Internal Audit Agency, Dr Eric Oduro Osae, and a former Managing Director, Donewell Life Insurance Co. Ltd, Mrs Stella Segbawu, the committee had two terms of reference.

They were charged to make recommendations in respect of emoluments and other privileges for article 71 office holders, as specified under the Constitution; and also to examine any other relevant matter which the Committee deemed appropriate to its work.

Similar committee, set up in the past, were at various points chaired by Prof. Miranda Greenstreet, Mrs Mary Chinery-Hesse, Mr Ishmael Yamson, Prof. Marian Ewurama Addy, and Prof. Francisca Edu-Buandoh.

In inaugurating the Ntiamoa-Baidu Committee, President Akufo-Addo, then, urged them to bring to the table the work and include in their deliberations, the work and recommendations of those previous committees to be able to establish consistencies