AFAG petitions Parliament on ex gratia to Kufuor

Kwabena Bomfeh, leading member of AFAG The Alliance for Accountable Governance (AFAG) has petitioned Parliament over President Mills’ handling of the controversial ex gratia payment to former government officials and Members of Parliament. The group is accusing the president of disbursing ex gratia payments to MPs and former ministers while the emoluments of former president J.A. Kufuor and his vice were being handled haphazardly, in contravention of the 1992 Constitution. A leading member of AFAG, James Kwabena Bomfeh, told Joy News’ Sammy Darko after the presentation of the petition to the Majority Leader Cletus Avoka, that the group was deeply concerned about the conduct of the president on the matter. “It is only Parliament that can vary its own work or if anybody has any doubts or challenges to what Parliament has done, the most appropriate forum would be to proceed to the Supreme Court and seek an annulment of what Parliament has done,” he stated. Following a public outcry about the quantum of the ex gratia recommended by the Chinery Hesse Committee (CHC) for members of the executive, President Mills set up the Ishmael Yamson Committee (IYC) to review the recommendations which were approved by Parliament – even though members of the House later said they didn’t pay attention to contents of the CHC report when they approved it. AFAG is arguing that the president, who is the head of the executive, had no mandate to set the IYC to review the recommendations of the CHC which had been approved by Parliament. “This petition is to impress upon Parliament to exercise their constitutional duties [of holding the president in check because] the president acting in the name of the executive cannot arrogate to himself whatsoever rights that the people have not ceded to him, in this case to vary the work of Parliament,” Mr Bomfeh said. Story by Malik Abass Daabu/Myjoyonline.com/Ghana