Former general secretary of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), Kwabena Agyei Agyepong, has proposed that Members of Parliament receive ex-gratia only once, regardless of how many years they serve in parliament.
Ex-gratia should be paid to MPs who are leaving parliament and will not return, not to those who have been re-elected.
Sitting MPs should not be given ex-gratia because they have not left parliament, according to Kwabena Agyepong.
Ex-gratia should be given to those who have left the legislature. Even if you win an election, serve four years in the legislature, return, and win another election, you should not be given ex-gratia.
You should enjoy it only once. Teachers and other professionals enjoy their end-of-service benefits only once and so, why should you (MPs) enjoy it multiple times?
He stressed that for a country that is not financially strong, we should not entertain this kind of arrangement.
When asked if ex-gratia should be scrapped, he disagreed saying, it shouldn’t be cancelled but should be enjoyed only once.
“We could also look at the quantum. I’m not sure about the quantum, but we only get one chance to enjoy it. We cannot simply let people who have served the country go home empty-handed. However, we cannot allow them to take it every four years,” he said in a recent interview on Rainbow Radio 87.5Fm.
By: Rashid Obodai Provencal/Rainbowradioonline.com/Ghana
