Minister for Information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah has revealed he is not paid a penny as a Minister of state since he is a Member of Parliament.
The Member of Parliament for Ofoase Ayirebi, concurrently the Information Minister, in an interview on Peace FM’s Kokroko addressed issues of the large size of the Akuffo Addo’s government which is a major concern of many Ghaaians.
The Minister mentioned that the Public should not steer it’s focus on the compensation budget however they should consider the division of funds between political appointees and non-political government workers.
He further stated that the Compensation budget which the public bemoans as expended on government workers has a significant allocation to non- political appointees such as rotational nurses, police personnel and others.
“If you talk about the size of the government…I believe you are talking about the size of the compensation budget, more especially the money which is used to pay government workers. That is divided into two parts, one part has to do with those who are not political appointees, like those I have been mentioning this morning, the rotational nurses, police, and others, when you talk about the compensation budget, there is part of it” he said.
In the interview, he threw more light on the President’s policy which in principle stipulates that any Member of Parliament appointed as a Minister of state shall not enjoy double salary or allowances. He stated for a fact that, In lieu of this principle, any Member of Parliament who occupies a Ministerial office is not paid any salary for the latter.
He mentioned that once a Member of Parliament is appointed as a Minister, it is not even up to them to him or her decide whether they will be paid or not. He stated clearly that he is “not paid a cedi”
“It is true that Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo explained why he choose a certain number of ministers but there was a clause he added in which he explained that the majority of ministers he has appointed are Members of Parliament, and because they are members of parliament, they don’t take anything extra, it doesn’t cost the taxpayer anything extra on the compensation side.”
“For me, that I am talking to you… they don’t pay me one cedi as Minister of State, because Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s policy is that, if you are a Member of Parliament and he gives you a minister or deputy minister, it is not even up to you to make a choice that you want this or not, you get paid on your MP salary. So, when people make this argument about the size of the government, the reality is that the majority of ministers who are Members of Parliament, don’t get paid extra,” he said.
He also mentioned that the government is carrying it’s burden of adjusting to salvage the state’s economy by cutting down the annual expenditure of the Ministers and also cut down the salaries of state appointees by 30%.
“Just have a conversation with DCEs. Especially after the 30% cut was introduced, the DCEs are still being paid on the old salary scale. So if you cut that down by 30%, you will see what people are going through in government,” he said.