The salaries and other benefits of Article 71 office holders, including the president, ministers of state, superior court justices and members of Parliament, as well as, top public officials, such as the chairperson of the Electoral Commission (EC) and other heads of Independent Governance Bodies (IGB)s, have once again become topical.

Reports of elite public office holders being paid GH¢60,000 upwards as monthly salaries alone have rekindled the debate about whether the remuneration of these office holders is fair, given the emoluments of the average public office holder and the state of the public purse.

It can be recalled that one of the major promises of President John Dramani Mahama was to review the benefits of Article 71 office holders, including the cancellation of the retirement benefits of these office holders, commonly known as ex-gratia.

Mahama promised that the review would commence in 2025 and would be aimed at closing the disparity between the remunerations of ordinary public servants and Article 71 office holders.

"The payment of ex-gratia to members of the executive under Article 71 will be scrapped. And the necessary constitutional steps to abolish that payment will start in earnest in 2025.

"We will also begin the process of persuading the other arms of government, other than the executive, to accept the removal of this ex-gratia payment," he stated at the National Democratic Congress (NDC) National Campaign Launch at Winneba on March 2, 2023.

Well, Mahama is in the fifth month of his governance, and there has been no official communication on how this promise of cancelling the ex-gratia will be attained.

Perhaps, the review of Article 71 will be part of the ongoing constitutional review process.

BAI/VPO

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