MP rent allowance 'biggest scandal of 2013'

The GH¢50,000 rent allowances to be given to each of the 275 Members of the Sixth Parliament has been described as the biggest scandal of the new year.

Speaking on TV3’s News @ 10 on Tuesday, February 12, 2013, Bernard Ohemeng Baah, Founder of CeDI-Africa, said in a country where housing deficit is pegged at one-and-a-half million, and the figure projected to double by 2015, such a move should not be condoned.

“Look at the amazing consensus with which they passed the bill,” he told presenter Bright Nana Amfoh.

He advocated that the monies must be invested into a housing project in the form of a "parliamentary village".

Mr Baah said a “village” where all MPs are camped will save tax payers the burden of their monies being used to buy fuel for “their (MPs) V8s”.

“If all MPs are camped in a Parliamentary Village, we can bus them to Parliament,” he stressed.

He indicated that no one is preventing the legislators from living comfortably but they must do so within "our economic development".

He projected that if in 2009 MPs were given GH¢30,000 as rent allowance and they are receiving ¢20,000 more in 2013, then the next Parliament to be inaugurated in 2017 is likely to receive GH¢80,000 if a permanent solution is not found.

According to him, some MPs will continue to enjoy the allowance since they may be re-elected by constituents.

He stated that the MPs are not supposed to live above the means of the citizenry.

Therefore, measures must be put in place so they can live among the people they promised to help.

This will make them to stay in touch with the constituents' problems, he said.

Mr Baah further indicated that the four-year allowance given to the MPs even contravenes the Rent Act, which stipulates that one should not be charged more than six months rent advance.

“There is no country that gives four years rent advance,” he added.

“For many of them, this is not rent advance.”

He recommended the Ghana Real Estates Developers Association (GREDA) as a competent agency to deliver in building the proposed Parliamentary Village.

“First of all, GREDA will only be provided land,” Mr Baah said.

“Government can give a sovereign guarantee for sponsorship,” he indicated.

He said his research organisation is preparing a document to be presented to the Privileges Committee of Parliament so that the issue of accommodation will be solved once and for all.

He said if Ghana’s first president Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah had shared monies to legislators instead of building the ‘Job 600’, where would the current MPs be using as their offices.