Double salary: It amounts to political immorality - Dr. Oko-Boye

“If it turns out that there was a double payment and the state was not alerted because of the systemic flaws; either it can amount to political immorality or a case of dishonesty. It can also be a contravention of our laws that can be prosecuted in a court” said Member of Parliament for Ledzokuku constituency, Dr Bernard Oko-Boye.

An ongoing probe by the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) into the allegations of double salary paid to some appointees of the former government has been the subject of public debate amid claims of political witch-hunting.

25 of the MPs were initially asked to report to the police, but 18 of them were later asked to disregard that invitation.

So far, about eight of them have been interrogated by the CID.

Already, Parliament has announced the formation of a two-member bi-partisan committee to investigate the double salary scandal.

The Ledzokuku MP, who was speaking to the issue during a panel discussion on Peace FM morning show ‘Kokrokoo’, Friday, said it will be misleading for any Member of Parliament to feign ignorance of any deposit in their account.

“It is misleading to say MPs don’t know their pay. As MPs what we take now, we know so immediately it changes, you should be aware. It will be an indictment and a serious act of negligence if as MP; you claim to be ignorant of money that comes into your account…To know the weakness of the system and to do nothing about especially if you are in a position to do so; it is unfair, immoral and cannot be justified” he point out.

Meanwhile, John Jinapor, speaking on the same platform, urged that politics be taken out of the discussion.

"What is being done about the systematic failure that caused the double payment in the first place? Investigations must be done alright but it must be void of politics. The politics must be taken out (to avoid) the whole issue being turned upside down," he said.



According to him, issues like this (double pay saga) paint a bad picture of parliamentarians “and so steps must be taken to investigate the matter as well as correct what is going on wrong”.