Government orders Controller and Accountant General to
pay former
President Kufuor immediately
Masahudu Ankiilu Kunateh, Ghanadot
Accra, June 12, Ghanadot - The
Government of Ghana has ordered the Controller and
Accountant General to pay salary due Former President John
Agyekum Kufuor with immediate effect.
The order follows media reports circulating in the country
that the Former President had not been paid for the past six
months.
According to Ghana's 1992 Constitution, it allows presidents
to retire on their salaries but government’s freezing of
payments affected Mr. Kufuor.
A Deputy Information Minister, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa told
some journalists in Accra that the issue happened on the
blind side of government.
“We are grateful to the media, the revelation in the (Daily)
Mail today caught government’s attention and so we checked
with the Controller and Accountant General Department…and we
were surprised to find out that it is true the former
president had not been paid for the past six months,” he
stated.
When asked whether Former President Jerry
John Rawlings had been paid for the past six months, the
Deputy Information Minister could not
answer, saying “I will have to check on that."
A source at the Controller and Accountant General Department
attributed the delay to a directive from the government
transition team that all payments be halted accounted for
the situation.
Mr. Okudzeto disclosed that the current ministers and their
deputies since assuming office had not also been paid.
He further disclosed that the former Vice President, Alhaji
Aliu Mahama has been written to, to submit all medical,
entertainment, and utility bills for payments.
The Constitution does not entitle a vice president to retire
on his salary but the Greenstreet Report mandates the state
to pay his bills.
However for the past six months, such bills had not been
paid necessitating the writing to him by the government to
submit any bills for payment.
The Deputy Information Minister revealed that work was being
expedited on the reviewed recommendations of the Chinery
Hesse Committee report so as to give the former president
and his vice their due.
He was not sure when the report which was submitted to the
president last week will reach Parliament for consideration
and approval.
Mr Ablakwa however expressed the hope that the report will
be laid before the House before it rises for the session,
and appealed to the august House to dicuss the report well
so that the public will be satisfied on the report.
Ghanadot
