News:
January 26, 2011
A senior member of Ghana’s Parliament has broken ranks with his colleague MPs on the matter of recent demands for increased pay for the nation’s legislators.
Shai Osu Doku MP, Hon David Tetteh Assuming, in an interview with Citi News stated categorically that he is opposed to the proposed upward review of salaries and benefits for members of the legislature.
He believes salaries for all article 71 office holders, which includes MPs, should not be increased for at least two years.
His comments come at a time Parliament is preparing to put before the Presidential Committee on Emoluments a detailed proposal to demand as much as 7,000 new Ghana cedis as monthly salary for lawmakers.
Hon David Tetteh Assuming said it is time for people in government positions to try and sacrifice for the nation to move on.
“We cannot continue to depend on foreign donors to develop this country for us. We should take innovative ways to do it. I believe that if all people in top governmental position agree to freeze any salary increments we would be able to gather enough money to develop the living standards of the people that we are presenting”.
“If we are able to develop the living standards of the people then the kind of pressure that is on us to pay people’s school fees, to pay funeral donations would be reduced. Nobody is prepared to live at the whims and caprices of the people”.
Asked whether he was satisfied with his monthly salary and living conditions as a Member of Parliament, the Shai Osu Doku MP said he is not happy but his main objective as a law maker is to ensure that the needs of his electorates are first catered for.
“It is the people who brought me to this level and I must think of them. Let me think of the people at the grassroots and let’s find a way of solving their poor conditions. You may see it not to be huge but if this approach is made the people of this country would be very satisfied”.
“Let us begin by setting an example, let us freeze our salaries for two years at this level even though it is not much and we are not happy but that is not to say that we would live in abject poverty. The little that we receive let us make do with it and freeze the salary for two years so we gather some money for the welfare of our people”.
Source: citifmonline.com