Controller fails to account for Mahama’s 10 percent salary cut
Mahama’s 10 percent salary cut: The former president and his vice, Kwesi Amissah-Arthur, as well as all Ministers of state, under his administration voluntarily took a 10 percent salary cut beginning 2014, but the funds accrued cannot be traced.
The Controller and Accountant General is unable to account for funds that accrued from former President John Mahama’s 10 percent salary cut policy which affected himself, his deputy and all appointees.
The revelation is contained in the Auditor General’s 2016 performance report on the Finance Ministry and Controller and Accountant General.
The former president and his vice, Kwesi Amissah-Arthur, as well as all Ministers of state, under his administration voluntarily took a 10 percent pay cut beginning 2014.
The decision formed part of the former administration’s move to save some money for the smooth administration of the economy.
The pay cut summed up to a total of GHS2.5million at the end of December 2016.
The amount was deposited in a special account recommended by the former president to be used for the construction of Community-based Health Planning and Services compounds or CHPS compounds.
But appearing before the Public Accounts Committee of parliament Wednesday August 9, 2017, the Controller and Accountant General Eugene Ofusuhene said that a letter from the chief of Staff asked for the transfer of the money in 2014.
He said his office is, therefore, not able to account for the monies accrued afterwards;
…the monies are later on released to them [government]. That is how we operate. So as to what they have done with the money that one is not an area for us to answer because it was not statutory deductions which we should have taken and then say pay to SNNIT or pay to GRA. This one was a voluntary deductions so when you deduct you give it to the one who asked you to deduct on his behalf.”
