Have you ever wondered why many school lecturers, traders, doctors and other professionals are taking brazen steps out of their original fields to embrace politics with arms wide open? You better stop wondering, the answer is simple; Ghanaian politicians are milking the economy dry. The tax burden on the general public is offering our politicians lavish lifestyles. The disturbing thing here is that we are at the cliff of an economic meltdown and in all seriousness, it appears our leaders are less concerned about solving this problem. Even a blindfolded junior student in secondary school knows our problems come from the imbalance between Ghanaian revenue account and her expenditure account.
So the big question is, “why is our focus on one side of the balance sheet which is the revenue side, instead of paying more attention to our expenditure?” Anyway, when you get to know the salary of these politicians, you will really understand the point I’m trying to make. Read On To See Salary Of Ghanaian Politicians:
Salary Of Ghanaian Politicians
Are you aware that when you add up the monthly earnings of a Cabinet Minister in the current regime, it could be higher than GHc34,683 without paying heavy attention to some other perks? Now, we want to have a clear view of how our so-called politicians disperse state resources that are barely enough on themselves. Note that this article is based on research carried out in 2014. Check it out below:
Basic Salary: GH¢10,000
Duty Allowance: 50% of basic salary – GH¢5,000
Special Allowance: 30% of basic salary – GH¢3,000
Entertainment Allowance: 35% of basic salary – GH¢3,500
Wardrobe Allowance: 10% of basic salary – GH¢1,000
Ex-gratia fixed at GH¢400,000 (for 48 mos) – GH¢8,333
45 Gallons of fuel a week 45 18 GH¢3,510
Total = GH¢34,683
Note that this amount does not include furnished accommodation, two cars, one 4×4 and a saloon car, and other benefits like the ones listed below:
One Chauffeur (est. GH¢800) 1 800 800
One Cook (est. GH¢600) 1 600 600
One Garden Boy (est. GH¢500) 1 500 500
One Steward (est. GH¢350) 1 350 350
One Security Guard(est. GH¢350) 1 350 350
Police Escort (est. GH¢1200) 1 1,200 1,200
Now, if a Minister of State is taking home more than $10,000 as salaries and perks a month, how much then is the President of Ghana taking home? We all know how our President told Ghanaian teachers, nurses, doctors, farmers, civil servants and others that he has personally given up 10% of his salary for them, but he is actually taking home close to $15,000 a month as salary and perks.
Let us also consider the expenses that have accrued from the use of his personal airplane when leaders of some great Western countries like Sweden, Norway, and Finland don’t even have personal airplanes and travel on commercial airlines. Even the British Prime Minister once traveled to Miami with his family about two years ago on a commercial airline for vacation while the opposite is the case here. Our president once went to Dubai for a vacation using his private plane for over two weeks with the plane parked at a hangar which is subject to parking charges. Who then will make the payment? Of course, the taxpayers have to pay from their thin salaries through taxation.
Do you think we will overcome our challenges without cutting some of the senseless perks our politicians and other highly placed civil servants get? The number of public employees is estimated to be more than 700,000 meanwhile 10,000 of these public employees are offered free housing and car benefits and these are those who receive enough money as salary to pay for all their freebies.
From the look of things, to be a politician in Ghana seems to be one of the most lucrative businesses that pays you back all the “capital” invested during the campaign. Also, you may not believe that DCE’s receive a minimum $35,000 every four years, can you guess why it is paid?
It is paid as ex gratia. It is not only the Ministers who take home ex gratia every four years, the Members of Parliament, Deputy Ministers, Council of state members, in fact, all political appointees also make such earnings.
Although Ghana’s Executive and MPs receive considerably lesser amounts than some other African parliamentarians such as Nigeria but compared to other public officials in Ghana whose monthly minimum wage is about $75 and civil servants such as teachers who earn below $500, we can only ask if it is fair enough?
Also, according to the BBC report of 2nd November 2012, it shows that in 2009, Parliament agreed to increase the salaries of civil servants in a session that was not televised or made public. Following the agreement, the salaries of the President and the MPs increased to the following amounts in 2012:
The president’s monthly salary went up from about $4,240 (£2,640) to $6,357, which is tax-free.
The new salary for ministers, who also have benefits such as the use of two cars, a house with staff and an entertainment allowance, will now be $4,770.
MPs’ salaries were increased by $2,225 to $3,800 a month.
However, between 2012 and 2014, there must have been another agreement to sky-rocket the salaries of the President and the MPs because the difference between their salaries in 2012 and 2014 is really clear. How is this going to help the country move forward?
How is it going to improve the status of our economy? Since the duty of a politician is to serve, these exorbitant salaries do not show service in any way, rather, it is an act of robbing the people of their hard earned monies and it is a fast lane to crippling the country’s economy.
