MPs of Last Parliament Got 20 million Each..

.... as Ex-gratia

Members of the last Parliament (MPs), who served their full term of office, have each been paid an ex-gratia award of 20 million cedis.

The beneficiaries included Mr Osafo Marfo, Minister of Finance and MP for Oda, Mr Hackman Owusu Agyemang, Foreign Minister and MP for New Juaben North, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, Attorney General and Minister of Justice and MP for Abuakwa.

Mr Samuel Ofosu-Ampofo, MP for Fanteakwa,who was speaking at a meeting of the Executive Members of the Fanteakwa Constituency branch of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), at Bososu said it is not true that Ministers of State in the former government and MPs of the party alone benefited from the ex-gratia award.

Mr Ofosu-Ampofo explained that the ex-gratia award was a constitutional provision and all public officers, who qualified by its definition, benefited from the scheme.

Mr Ofosu-Ampofo said the national debt of 7.5 billion dollars, which amounted to 41 trillion cedis included loans contracted since independence, adding that as at 1981, the total national debt was around 4.5 billion dollars.
He explained that all the loans, which were contracted by the previous government, were used on development projects, including the expansion of the Tema Harbour and the construction of roads, building of schools, hospitals through out the country.

Mr Ofosu-Ampofo said that the development projects were to facilitate economic development of the country adding that profit accruing from such investment could be used to repay the loans.

He said the government of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), could not deny knowledge of the country's debt since the 2000 budget referred to it.
"The continuous hammering on the national debt was an attempt by the ruling government to find an excuse for its inability to honour its electoral promises."

He said though the government continued to "make fetish of the national debt, it presented a budget of 14.3 trillion cedis, the highest in the history of the country and more than double the seven trillion budget presented by the former government last year."
Mr Ofosu-Ampofo said, "if the ruling government claims to have the personnel to better manage the economy, it should provide pragmatic and innovative methods to solve the micro-economic problems facing the country."
He explained that the NDC had been "slow in reacting to the false accusations made against it by the ruling NPP administration, because the party felt it should be given the opportunity to settle down as a new government."