Governance Expert, Professor Baffour Agyeman-Duah, has applauded and described as courageous the move by Togbe Afede XIV, to return his ex-gratia of over GHS365,000.
According to Professor Agyeman-Duah, he is impressed with the fact that the Togbe has been courageous to tell the nation of one of the waste lines tha is in the system and he is proud of him.
“I am very proud of his decision to refund the amount and also make the statement to let the public know that people who volunteer their services, even get more money in terms of emoluments than those who are in their paid jobs.”
Professor Baffour Agyeman-Duah
Professor Agyeman Duah indicated that government keeps creating institutions and every institution created by the state comes along with a huge expenditure in maintaining not just the office but those who occupy the office. “This is exactly the problem we have created for ourselves.”
According to the Governance Expert, if the people continually say they are poor and constantly lament their helplessness in raising revenues, the giving away of such huge amounts to people who occupy positions, is one of the causes of such.
Togbe has revealed how resources are wasted
The Governance Expert averred that what Togbe Afede has done is to dramatize one of many ways that the country wastes resources. He added that the Chief made a very telling point about how the leaders in the country are dissipating the scanty resources that Ghana has.
“He said this is a purely voluntary work and you know members of the council of state are generally people of accomplishment with their lives. We don’t put any “rifraf” on the council, it’s mostly somebody who has worked, is experienced and most often retired from their positions with their own pensions and emolument, then you come on the council, you pay him regularly every month with other privileges that I believe includes a car, driver, travel allowance and petrol.
“Then after all this, you send GHS365,000 which is purely voluntary to members of the council. You calculate, if there are 30 Members of the council and every four years you are doing it, look at how much money we spend on people who may not need that kind of money.”
Professor Baffour Agyeman-Duah
Professor Agyeman-Duah’s comments followed the Paramount Chief and the Agbogbomefia of Asogli, Togbe Afede XIV’s rejection of over GHS365,000 ex-gratia paid to him for serving on the Council of State between 2017 and 2020.
According to Togbe Afede XIV, it is not appropriate to receive the said amount when he already took monthly salaries for serving on the Council. He provided these clarifications after members of the public reacted to news of whether or not he indeed followed through with his supposed refund and the rationale behind it.
In a press statement, the traditional leader explained that he did not think the payment was made to trap him, as it was being speculated.
“I believe it was paid to everybody who served on the Council of State. However, I thought that extra payment was inappropriate for a short, effectively part-time work, for which I received a monthly salary and was entitled to other privileges. So, I was very uncomfortable with it.”
Togbe Afede XIV
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