Adhere to Article 71 to avert salary discrepancies- Ayariga tells Controller

Bawku Central Member of Parliament Mahama Ayariga is asking the Controller and Accountant General Department to strictly adhere to the dictates of Article 71 in paying salaries of politicians and other public servants.

That is the only way to stop the inefficiencies in the salary administration in the public sector, he stated.

Speaking on Joy FM’s Ghana Connect programme on the double salary scandal that has rocked some former government appointees, the Bawku Central MP said if the Controller had gone strictly according to the dictates of Article 71 of the 1992 Constitution, perhaps there will not have been a problem like this.

Over nine former government appointees are being investigated for allegedly collecting double salaries as MPs and Ministers while serving under ex-president John Mahama.

Some have publicly denied the allegations while others are said to have privately made admissions to collecting same.

Since the scandal broke, many have blamed the paying authorities- the Controller and Accountant General and the Parliamentary Service Board- for not communicating before paying the past officials.

But Mahama Ayariga maintained that both the paying authorities must comply with Article 71.

Article 71 (1) and (2) of the 1992 Constitution stipulates that the determination of the salaries and allowances of the Executive, the Legislature and the Judiciary paid from the Consolidated Fund would be determined by the President, on the recommendations of a committee of not more than five persons appointed by him and acting upon the advice of the Council of State.

In determining the salaries of the President, his Ministers and political appointees, as well as the members of the Council of State, the Constitution states that Parliament will determine that based on the advice of the same committee.

He was quick to add that many of the lapses in the payment in the previous government are administrative which could easily be resolved without the drama of criminal proceedings.

Having been written to as one of the beneficiaries of double salaries, Ayariga hinted the issue of salary discrepancy did not start under the previous government, hinting his party will sooner or later provide a list of NPP appointees who benefited from same during the Kufuor led administration.

A member of Occupy Ghana, Casely Hayford found it surprising that some of the appointees were complaining of not knowing the quantum of salaries.

He said it is the simplest information any appointee will and described it as lies.

“You can’t possibly be that naïve,” he stated.

He called for a centralized or single payroll system for all Article 71 officeholders so that everybody can tap into it.