Minority Leader: It is wrong to demand rent from officials in bungalows

Minority Leader: It is wrong to demand rent from officials in bungalows
Audrey Micah, Ghanadot

Accra, Oct 2, Ghanadot - The Minority Leader in Parliament and Member of Parliament (MP) for Suame Constituency Mr. Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu has cautioned against forcing former government officials to pay rent for over staying in officials bungalows.

To him, that could set a dangerous precedence in contravention of existing convention on state accommodation for government officials.

The minority leader in an interview on Joy FM, said the practice of former appointees overstaying in official bungalows after leaving office outdated the Kufuor administration.

Government has billed about 10 former appointees in the Kufuor administration various sums of money to pay as rent for staying in state buildings even when they had ceased to be such.

Some have said they will not pay the money, warning the government will lose should the matter be taken to court.

“We shouldn’t create any situation where people might misconstrue what is happening as selective justice.”

He said there had been an unwritten agreement that allowed “ministers and deputy ministers relieved of their positions to hold on to their accommodation.”

The Member of Parliament for Suame Constituency stated that “in 1997 when we came into Parliament we had these examples out there.

“Even Members of Parliament who lost elections stayed on in these official accommodations for close to one year before they left. That has been the practice so if now we are saying that let us break from the past, that is a different thing but to make it appear as if these things started in 2001, in my view will be most unfortunate.”

He said the handling of the issue by the government will feed into the perception that the government’s action was borne of political witch hunting.

Ghanadot