President Akufo-Addo’s Vice, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia was not left out of the curious indulgence at the expense of the Ghanaian taxpayers from the contentious Presidential Emoluments Committee that recommended, in June 2020, fat salaries and allowances to the hundreds of Article 71 officeholders in the country.
In the recommendations that have ticked off angry protests by citizens, where President Akufo-Addo will be entitled to four chauffeur-driven cars to be changed every four years upon leaving office, Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia will be entitled to two.
The vehicles are to be comprehensively insured, by the State and maintained with an allocation of 450 litres of fuel per month.
All his official travels in his capacity as a former Vice President of Ghana will be fully covered by the State.
If he decides not to pursue politics anymore or occupy any public position, the State will have to provide him a fully furnished office with a maximum of two staff. For his accommodation, he will be paid a lump sum amounting to 30% of his salary and then provided 24-hour security service.
He and his wife, Second Lady, Samira Bawumia, will also be entitled to full health insurance. The Second Lady herself will be put on a salary equivalent to 100% of the salary of a Minister of State.
The Vice President will retire on his Ghc39, 397 monthly salary while his gratuity will be 4 months salary for each of the 8 years that he would have served.
And these are different from the slew of perks that he already enjoys as a sitting Vice President.
The Prof. Yaa Ntiamoah-Baidu Committee also recommended that the salary adjustment allocated to the President, Vice President, and all Article 71 officeholders, should take retrospective effect from 2017. This means that all previous salaries that they took are to be deducted and the difference paid to them as arrears.
It has since been confirmed that the government has implemented the recommendations, a thing that has surprised many Ghanaians because the implementation was not exactly announced.
The juicy conditions of service lavished on the Article 71 officeholders come in the wake of the government announcing that Ghana is in a dispensation of austerity and therefore the people should pay more taxes and bear with the government.
Source: WhatsupNewsGhana
