First & Second Ladies Have Already Chopped Gargantuan Salaries-TUC

While Ghanaians ramble over whether or not the First Lady Rebecca Akufo Addo and Second Lady Samira Bawumia should be paid formalised salaries equal to Cabinet Ministers, the Trade Union Congress (TUC) has revealed that the women have already been paid the contentious salaries.

Indeed, the GHC 33,000 and GHC 32,000 paid to Rebecca Akufo Addo and Mrs. Bawumia have been backdated to 2017 and have long dried up in the accounts of the spouses of the President and his Vice, according to the TUC.

“Salary arrears dated back to January 2017 have since been paid to the wives of

President Akuffo-Addo and Vice President Bawumia, in accordance with the

Committee’s recommendation which was approved by NDC and NPP Members of Parliament,” the TUC said in a statement issued today to strongly oppose the controversial salaries.

The TUC is therefore demanding an immediate refund of the said salaries that had already been paid.

Ghana’s biggest workers’ union in the sternly-toned statement the recommendations of the Prof. Ntiamoa-Baidu committee which was set up by President Akufo Addo in 2019 to determine salaries for the infamous Article 71 officeholders.

In the committee’s recommendation, they added salary recommendations for the spouses of the President and his Vice, despite the fact that the move was completely unconstitutional.

The TUC’s Secretary-General, Dr. Yaw Baah, said there is no legal basis for such payments to the First and Second Ladies.

 “It is simply not right for anyone who has not been officially assigned duties and responsibilities in the public service to receive monthly salaries. The Committee probably sought to regularise the payment of allowances that were being paid already. But you cannot regularize the payment of allowances which has no legal basis,” the statement read.

 “When the time comes for spouses of presidents and vice presidents to be assigned official duties and responsibilities that will qualify them to receive salaries from taxpayers’ money, the executive arm of government should remember the spouses of the Speakers of Parliament (the heads of the legislative arm of government) and the spouses of Chief Justices (the heads of the judiciary arm of government). They can also perform some official duties,” The TUC charged.