Leader of the United Front Party (UFP), Nana Agyenim Boateng has insisted it is not enough for the 1st and 2nd ladies of Ghana to issue releases saying they will refund allowances paid to them from 2017.
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According to him, these monies should be refunded with accumulated interest from 2021 because they (presidential spouses) have already used it. “They should refund the money with interest right from 2017 till now,” he told Happy98.9FM’s Don Kwabena Prah.
Comparing Ghana’s presidential spouses to the first lady of the United States of America (USA) Jill Biden, he said, “Even in America where they have better amenities, the 1st lady is refusing to take any allowances but in Ghana where we face development challenges, the presidential spouses are taking these allowances.”
He expressed his surprise over the actions of the current government which was regarded as “bringing change to Ghana.” “The President Akufo-Addo led administration has disappointed the country. We are in a country where we suffer from perennial flooding but we are giving away monies to presidential spouses.”
To him the president’s actions to validate rumors his government is being run on a friends and family basis. “Doctors are not being paid enough but we are paying huge allowances to the spouses of the president and vice,” he shared on the Epa Hoa Daben political talk show.
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Ghana was sent into a state of uproar when an emolument committee recommended that the spouses of the president and vice should be paid on a monthly basis regardless of not being article 71 office holders.
The 1st and 2nd ladies of Ghana have decided to refund to the state all the monies paid her since 2017 and refused to take any monies allocated to her pursuant to the recommendation of the Prof Yaa Ntiamoa-Boadu led committee, as approved by parliament on 6th January, 2021.
