Lawyer files suit to halt MPs' ex-gratia

08:15 - 03 January 2017

Mr. Yeboah is challenging a 10% raise for the president, vice president, judges, and other Article 71 office holders.

The Brong Ahafo regional chairman of the Ghana Bar Association (GBA), Alfred Tua Yeboah, has filed a suit at the Supreme Court to stop the 10% pay raise for MPs every four years upon the expiration of their tenure and Article 71 office holders when he/she assumes office saying its unconstitutional.

Mr Yeboah speaking on Accra-based Joy FM asked, "If you are an MP and then you take your ex gratia, your retirement benefits, it means that you are now out of parliament, that’s the essence of retirement. Who in Ghana has gone on retirement three, four, five or six times?".

He explained, "If that was the intention of Article 71, then that will mean that all superior court judges will have to retire every four years, take their benefits and come back. A judge will take his retirement benefit when he gets to his retirement [age] – either he is 65 or 70. But MPs, every four years they take [retirement benefits], I think it’s unconscionable."

In his suit, he is also challenging a 10% raise for the president, vice president, judges, and other Article 71 office holders.

The Presidential Committee on Emoluments has recommended that all article 71 office holders in the country enjoy a 10% annual increase in their salaries.

The increase is expected to start in January 2017. It will, however, be backdated to start from 2013.

The report, signed by Prof. Dora Francisca Edua-Buandoh stated that recommendations were based on the committee’s guiding principles of fairness, equity, motivation and ability of government to pay.