Posted on:
www.dailyguideghana.com
By William Yaw
Owusu
Tuesday, January
10, 2017
The request by former President John
Mahama to the Akufo-Addo government to keep his official residence is causing
uproar in the country.
Ghanaians are outraged over the
decision by former President Mahama to appropriate his official residence as
his retirement package.
The New Patriotic Party (NPP) side of
the Transition Team has subsequently rejected the outrageous request, which has
generated heated debate between the new government and the immediate past NDC administration
over the propriety of the ex-President’s action, which some claim smacks of
double standards.
The new government insisted that the
decision over whether or not the official residence of the Vice President of
the Republic located at No.3 Prestige Link in Cantonments, Accra where Mr.
Mahama has resided since his Vice President days has not been finalized.
Under the Transition law, former
President Mahama ought to have packed out for Dr Mahamudu Bawumia to move into
the house as Vice President.
Head of the NPP Transition Team, Yaw
Osafo Maafo said that the contentious house had not been given out as
retirement package to Mr Mahama.
Mr Osafo Maafo told DAILY
GUIDE yesterday that the new government had not authorised former President
Mahama to continue to stay in the facility.
“We have not approved of his request, and I
want to repeat we have received the request and the requests are two – for him
to be given his ex-gratia where he lives and also be given another property as
his office.”
He said the issue was referred to the
NPP’s legal team on the Transition Team but “our legal team is yet to receive
the report.”
The
NPP Transition Team chairman said President Mahama’s own appointed committee, headed
by Prof Dora Francisca Edu-Bandoh of the University of Cape Coast, did not
recommend a house for him and said it rather agreed on 40 percent of his salary
in lieu of accommodation.
He
quoted page 44 of the report, which suggested 40 percent of salary and nothing
on acquiring his current official quarters.
The
Edu-Bandoh Committee had Kwamena Ahwoi, a former Local Government Minister and
Chairman of the University of Ghana Council, as a member who ruled out dishing
out a house to resettle exiting presidents.
Mr
Osafo Maafo said the former Chief of Staff Julius Debrah discussed the matter
with him and followed up with a letter dated December 19.
According
to him, he had referred the matter to the legal team of the government for
consideration and will soon make public the outcome of the decision taken.
In spite of the uproar, the new
opposition NDC insists the last parliament approved ex-President Mahama’s
request before the house was dissolved.
Apparently after realizing that there
was no basis to appropriate the house, the NDC, using its then majority in
Parliament, secretly amended the Edu-Bandoh Committee report to include housing
settlement, and even that did not say his current abode should be given to him.
Immediate past Chief of Staff, Julius
Debrah believes that if the request would not be acceded to, the NPP should put
it on paper.
House History
The building in contention was
originally the GNTC Club House, which later became the guest house of the Ghana
Cocoa Board (COCOBOD).
When former Vice President Kow Nkensen
Arkaah took office in 1993, there was no official residence for the Vice
President and because he was the MD of GNTC, he settled on that building and
thereafter, it became the official residence for the Vice President under the 4th
Republic and has since remained so.
Subsequent Vice Presidents namely the
late John Evans Atta Mills, the late Alhaji Aliu Mahama and President Mahama
himself have all used the facility.
However, President Mahama refused to
move out of the residence when he took office as the President of Ghana and as
a result, his Vice Paa Kwasi Bekoe Amissah Arthur lived at the Australian House
which is a government safe house.
Majority View
Majority Leader Osei Kyei-Mensah
Bonsu appeared to have doused the flame yesterday when he said on radio that
President Akufo-Addo approved the request for the government to provide a house
for the immediate-past President but insisted that the approval did not mean
that Mr. Mahama should be allowed to keep the current facility.
“We did not include that his current
residence be given to him; that is not what we said.”
He said “the Mills/Mahama NDC
administration never provided a house for ex-president John Agyekum Kufuor
after his tenure but President Akufo-Addo was of the view that we should not
repay evil with evil, in fact he told me that he wants us to start a new beginning.”
Hannah Tetteh
Hanna Tetteh, spokesperson of the NDC
side of the Transition Team and former Foreign Minister, rejected the
accusations against ex-President Mahama, disclosing that the request by her
boss for a bungalow and office was part of his end-of-service benefit package
approved by parliament.
“Parliament approved the president’s
entitlement. What was discussed and approved by parliament has been the case
for previous heads of state. It was that the president would be provided with
official accommodation befitting a former president which also will have guest
houses and an office. So it’s not about him asking for something; it’s an
entitlement approved for him by parliament which has been approved for former
heads of state already,” she insisted.
But the same package approved for
John Kufuor was rejected by the NDC and the former president was never settled.
Expert’s View
In the ensuing debate, a constitutional
law professor has waded into the controversy, saying the ex-President’s request
should be treated with ‘contempt’ because it is not backed by law.
Prof. H. Kwasi Prempeh said, “Per the
Edu-Bandoh Report, as approved by Parliament, President Mahama is not entitled
to a state-provided house in retirement. He is entitled, as allowance toward
his residential accommodation, to an amount equal to 40% of his monthly salary.
That's what the current law says.”
"His request to keep the state
house he lived in during his tenure, first, as Vice President and later as
President must be declined and treated with the contempt it deserves. The
Akufo-Addo government must not tolerate this. If he refuses to move out of the
Cantonments House, he should be forcibly removed. Enough of this nonsense,” he
posted on Facebook.
Mahama Ban
When ex-President Mahama assumed
office in 2013, he abolished the policy that allowed public office holders to
purchase state bungalows allocated to them and immediately instructed then
Chief of Staff, Prosper K. Bani to suspend all requests by government officials
to purchase any state vehicles assigned to them for official use without delay.
Unfortunately, outgoing NDC ministers
have been asked to buy the official vehicles at reduced prices.
Bizarre Twist
However, in a bizarre twist, the
outgoing Chief of Staff Julius Debrah, in a leaked letter of December 19, requested
ownership of the building and asked the incoming government to accede to the
request.
“Reference our (Osafo-Marfo/Debrah)
discussion of 19th December 2016 on the above stated matter, we wish to
indicate that H.E President John Dramani Mahama would like to have Bungalow No.
3, Prestige Link, Cantoments, Accra and its adjoining facilities as his
official retirement home.”
Mr. Debrah later said that President
Mahama once made a verbal request to President Akufo-Addo, who referred them to
Mr. Osafo Maafo.
Fight Back
The office of the ex-President, in a
statement, asked the public to ignore claims about President Mahama’s residence.
“Contrary to the claims being made
that HE John Dramani Mahama, former President of the Republic of Ghana, has
refused to vacate his residence, we wish to state and confirm that per the
information officially communicated to the newly inaugurated administration
following discussions by the Joint Transition Team, President Mahama will
continue to maintain his current place of residence as his retirement home.”
“The decision and agreement on the
place of residence and office for the former President was formally
communicated to the new administration by the former Chief of Staff Julius
Debrah on December 19, 2016. The Sixth Parliament of the 4th Republic before
its dissolution also resolved that residential and office accommodation should
be provided to the outgoing President, HE John Dramani Mahama in line with
convention and existing precedent.”
The statement said “the claims that
Vice President Dr. Mahamadu Bawumia is stranded and has nowhere to stay are
mischievous and deliberately intended to embarrass President Mahama. The Vice
President is expected to take up residence in the House known as Australia
House, which was previously occupied by former Vice President Kwesi Bekoe
Amissah-Arthur.”
“An official and permanent residence
for the Vice President is currently under construction, off the Switchback
road. Dr. Bawumia will move into the new structure when completed,” the
statement said.
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