Maiden Citizens Alert!

Forum Tackles GHC50,000 Rent Advance Payment To MPs

The maiden Citizens ALERT! Forum lived up to its billing in its uncompromising treatment of the recent GHC50,000 per member rent advance paid to Members of Parliament. The Forum described the payments as scandalous, illegal, and inconsiderate.

The Forum was held on Tuesday, 12 February, 2013, at the Ghana International Press Centre with massive media presence and public attendance. The topic, “Assessing the huge rent advance payment to MPs against the imperatives of Integrity, Development, and Social Justice” was addressed in turns by Mr. Francis-Xavier Kojo Sosu Esq. (leading member of CeDI-Africa), Mr. Emmanuel Asamoah (Executive Director of GREDA), and Mr. Bernard Ohemeng-Baah (Founder of CeDI-Africa).

Mr. Sosu, addressing the payments from the Integrity and Social Justice standpoint stated that the 4 years rent advances are illegal and fly in the face of Section 25(5) of Ghana’s Rent Act 1963, Act 220 which prohibits the collection of rent advance in excess of 6 months from a tenant whose tenancy is for 6 or more months. Mr. Sosu bemoaned the lack of interest of our legislature in tackling the obvious arbitrariness in the rent market which puts citizens through untold hardship at the hands of landlords. The payment of 4 years advance to MPs, he noted, is a tacit endorsement of the demand of arbitrary rent advance by landlords in breach of the Rent Act. Mr. Sosu further mentioned that this act is just one additional case of the many injustices that exist in the country and inequities between the government and the citizens.

Mr. Ohemeng-Baah, on the other hand, called on citizens to be alert and not allow elected government officials and their appointees to create an oasis of peace for themselves within the sea of abjection within which the majority of citizens wallow. “It is absolutely necessary for the people’s elected representatives to share in the plight of the people to be able to represent them well”, he noted. He additionally emphasized the need for citizens to be up in demand of accountability from their government continually, stating that without an alert citizenry, governments would fail and take the people for granted. He lamented the government’s action of dolling out huge amounts as rent advance to go and compete with citizens for the few available residential facilities on the market, noting that the GHC13.75 million could be better spent towards bridging the country’s housing deficit which currently stands at over 1.5 million housing units, albeit marginally. The proposal of a Parliamentary Village was made at the forum by Mr. Emmanuel Asamoah, the Executive Director of the Ghana Real Estate Developers Association. Mr. Asamoah joined in the condemnation of the GHC50,000 given out as rent advance which was a rather lazy approach to dealing with the accommodation of Members of parliament. He provided that GREDA is ready and willing to work with the government towards the construction of residential accommodation for MPs which would be a more sensible way of spending the taxes of the Ghanaian. Mr. Asamoah, in response to a question posed by a journalist, stated that they had sent several proposals to government but often had no response to their proposals. He made mention of the failed STX housing deal as one case in which they proposed to construct the housing units at a far lower cost but the government chose to globe-trot for partners, all of whom failed to deliver the houses.

Mr. Ohemeng-Baah assured the people present that the Citizens ALERT! Platform would not be turned into an avenue for ‘touch-and-go’ Social Commentary on issues. He stated that the issue of accommodation for Members of Parliament would be pursued to avoid a recycling of the problem come January 2017.