First and Second ladies, Rebecca Akufo-Addo and Samira Bawumia
International Development Consultant, Williams Kojo Frimpong-Bonsu has charged the Trades Congress Union (TUC) to rather spell out roles for the 1st and 2nd ladies instead of rejecting the Ntiamoa-Baidu Committee’s recommendation for wives of Presidents and Vice Presidents to be paid monthly salaries.
Addressing a release from the TUC which insists the spouses have not been assigned any specific roles in the constitution and “therefore, they are not qualified to receive salaries from the public purse,” Williams Kojo Frimpong-Bonsu noted, “I was expecting the TUC to come out and prescribe the kind of roles that can be assigned to wives of Presidents and Vice Presidents to warrant them monthly salaries.”
According to him, the TUC says there is no part of the constitution that recognizes the spouses as public officials but “if they accept that the state should care for them and pay them allowances, then they can also suggest roles for them so they are put on monthly salaries.”
He noted that Dr. Kwabena Nyarko Otu, Director of Research and Policy in the Labour Research and Policy Institute of the TUC was a consultant to the committee and expressed his surprise at the position of the Congress now. “So why do they go back and condemn the same thing they were a part of?” he asked.
He made this submission in an interview on Happy98.9FM’s Epa Hoa Daben political talk show hosted by Don Kwabena Prah.
Background
The Trades Union Congress (TUC), has rejected the Ntiamoa-Baidu Committee’s recommendation for wives of Presidents and Vice Presidents to be paid monthly salaries.
In a press statement issued by the Congress, they insisted the spouses have not been assigned any specific roles in the constitution and “therefore, they are not qualified to receive salaries from the public purse.”
According to the TUC, even though Ghanaians appreciate the efforts of the First and Second ladies, the constitution does not assign any official responsibilities to them.
And thus, any payment salaries to them is “simply not right”.
“Ghanaians appreciate what the first and second ladies are doing to support women’s rights, children’s rights, and other noble initiatives towards social and economic development of our country. But neither the Constitution of Ghana nor the laws of the land assign them any official duties and responsibilities.”
“Therefore, the Trades Union Congress cannot support the payment of salaries to the spouses of presidents and vice presidents, even if the Ntiamoa-Baidu’s Committee recommended the payment of such salaries. It is simply not right for anyone who has not been officially assigned duties and responsibilities in the public service to receive monthly salaries. The Committee probably sought to rationalize or regularize allowances that were being paid already, hence its recommendation to convert such allowances into salaries. But you cannot regularize or rationalize the payment of salaries which have no basis.”