Accra, March 10, GNA - Government for the first time included queen-mothers in the list of traditional rulers to receive allowances, hitherto limited only to registered paramount chiefs, Mr Alexander Asum-Ahensah, Minister of Chieftaincy and Culture, said on Wednesday. He said Dr Kwabena Duffuor, Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, authorised the payment of the allowances to the queen mothers with effect from January 1, 2010 at a rate of Gh¢80.00. The Minister was answering a question in Parliament posed by Mr Kwasi Ameyaw-Cheremeh, NPP Member for Sunyani East, who wanted to know when registered queen mothers in the country would be paid allowances. Government, Dr Duffuor said, had adjusted upward the monthly stipends of paramount chiefs to 50 per cent but that of the queen mothers increased by 25 per cent.

He said queen mothers in the past were not considered for allowances but were included in 2010 and since that time were paid GH¢80.00.

He said currently queen-mothers were receiving GH¢100.00 while registered paramount chiefs received GH¢150.00.

Dr Duffuor indicated that the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning had made monthly allocation since 2010 for funds to the Ministry of Chieftaincy and Culture for release to the Regional Houses of Chiefs to effect payment.

"The allowance is not paid to the generality of chiefs and queen mothers," he said.

He stated that till date government had satisfactorily paid allowances to all the registered paramount chiefs and the queen mothers in the seven southern regions and their equivalents in the Northern, Upper East and Upper West Regions for the period January to December, 2010.

Dr Duffuor said the releases for the 2011 would continue such that the monthly allowances to the queen mothers would not stop. He said there were 210 registered chiefs of paramount status eligible for the allowances including queen mothers across the country.

The following, according to him, are the breakdown of the regional distribution of the paramount chiefs: Ashanti Region, 25, Brong-Ahafo Region, 49, Central Region, 33, Eastern Region, 11 and Greater Accra Region, seven.

The rest are Northern Region five, Upper East, 17, Upper West 17, Volta Region, 15, and Western Region, 22.

Asked why there was disparity in the increment and what accounted for it, the Minister said the job descriptions of the paramount Chiefs and the queen mothers were different.

However, Dr Osei Akoto, former Minister of State, said this was not the first time queen mothers were paid.