Standardize Ex-Gratia Payments

Saturday November 20, 2010
By Edmund Mingle
Professor Stephen Adei, former Rector of the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA) has revived the debate on ex- gratia, calling for a review of Article 71 to standardize the payment of emoluments to senior public officials. Presenting a critique of Article 71 of the Constitution which determines the emoluments paid to the President and top public officials, at a roundtable discussion organized by the Institute of Economic Affairs in Accra, on Wednesday, Prof. Adei identified some shortcomings of the Article which he believes should be changed.Although he did not fault the spirit of Article 71, he said the loopholes have led to its abuse in practice.

Article 71 of the Constitution creates and defines the conditions of service in terms of salaries, emoluments and privileges to top level officials of the three arms of government, allowing Members of Parliament (MPs) to approve those of the President and other members of the executive whilst the President also approves for the MPs.

For instance, he said, while the spirit of Article 71 is to honour top public servants, its implementation has created the impression that that class of public servants must have a special salary and allowances vastly different from the general public service conditions.

Describing the enjoyment of a different condition of service by Article 71 office holders as against other public sector workers as totally wrong, he said that could be corrected by stating clear percentage difference between what should be paid to Article 71 officers and lower level public servants.

That, he said, would ensure that the repeated confusion over the calculation of emoluments and end of service benefits were resolved, since the allowances of the Article 71 office holders would appreciate as the general salary levels in the public sector appreciated.

In most jurisdictions around the globe, he said the conditions of service for top level public officers was directly linked to that of other public sector workers and not the current Ghanaian situation where top officers in the Article 71 category enjoyed astronomically high packages as against what was given other public sector workers.

Prof. Adei, whose paper was on the topic, "Determination of emoluments - a critique of Article 71 of the 1992 Constitution, said Article 71, was not explicit in defining what constituted emoluments."

"This leaves room for wide interpretations," he stressed, indicating that there was a need for a clear definition of emoluments to avoid abuse.

The professor of economics and leadership, also expressed concern over the inclusion of the emoluments of the leadership of the Judiciary under Article 71, saying it has a tendency to affect the independence of the Judiciary.According to him there was a need for the conditions of service of the Chief Justice (CJ) and Justices of the Superior Courts to be separated from Article 71 and placed under Chapter 11 which dealt with provisions of the Judiciary."

In all Common Law countries, the Chief Justice is the highest paid public servant," he noted, adding that the inclusion of the CJ and Justices of the Superior Courts of the Judiciary among the beneficiaries of the Article 71, was not healthy towards promoting the independence of the judiciary, he stressed.

He stated that the inclusion of the CJ and Justices of the Superior Courts as well as Auditor-General and all others outside Parliament and the Executive among the beneficiaries of the Article 71, was like mixing apples with pears because such officers enjoyed tenured terms of office and their appointment was on merit unlike the legislature and the executive who occupied elective positions.

In addition, Prof. Adei recommended that the Article should be specific as to whether all Presidents have to set up a new committee to determine the emoluments of Article 71 officer holders.

Touching on the issue of appointment of the Committee that makes recommendations for the determination of the emoluments for Article 71 office holders, Prof. Adei noted that Article failed to draw the criteria for the appointment of members of the Committee, leaving the President with options to appoint "cronies" as members as was evidenced in the Chinery Hesse Committee.

Also, the approval process of the recommendations by the Committee, he said, was fraught with issues which put too much pressure on the MPs to demonstrate selflessness, integrity, leadership and public spiritedness.

Professor Adei called on the Professor Ewurama Addy Committee constituted to work on the emoluments under Article 71, to take advantage of the ongoing Constitution review in helping to amend the Article to make its implementation more effective and efficient

"The ongoing Constitutional review exercise offers a window of opportunity to address the weaknesses of the Article 71," he stressed.