The Editor of the Hawk Newspaper, Charles McCarthy has criticized government’s decision to give monthly salary to the First Lady and wife of the Vice President.
The journalist made the assertion while reacting to the development on Morning Update on TV XYZ hosted by Eric Ahianyo.
He indicated he truly appreciates the ceremonial roles of the First Lady, Mrs Rebecca Akufo-Addo and the spouse of the Vice President, Mrs Samira Bawumia. However, be argued that some specific work ought to fashion out to them before they could draw salaries like Article 71 office holders.
“You don’t give allowances and salaries to people who do not have clear work definitions.All former first and second ladies have tried to do a thing or two.Their activities are not defined so they don’t even need anything,” he stated.
According to McCarthy, the country is struggling to address some of the issues affecting the populace such as unemployment, poor salaries for government workers, lack of beds in hospitals so he found it difficult to understand why the state would prioritize adding presidential spouses to Article 71 office holders.
“We are getting to a point where some of these things will be resisted. What happened to the ordinary Ghanaian? Someone has taught for over 30years and still does not have a place to lay his head. We have affordable Houses which are not affordable. We can’t do this to ourselves” he added.
“Why should we even backdate this from 2017?” he quizzed
McCarthy indicated that, he strongly disagrees with the decision and approach adopted by this current administration by putting the first and second ladies under article 71.
“The executive summary of the committee was to at the emoluments of article 71 holders even though the committee worked ultra vires to their scope. The president was not duty bound to admit the report of the committee like he (President) did to that of Emile Short Commission” he said
He again stated that, the attempt by the NPP government to put first ladies on pay roll will rather worsen the situation of the country because Ghana has peculiar issues to attend to. The finance minister is not doing the country good at all.
“The finance minister till date has not been able to tell us how much it cost the president to use the luxurious plane. How willing or responsive will the finance be to account for expenditures of First Ladies?” he questioned.
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