Former President John Dramani Mahama
The Office of former President John Dramani Mahama has once again activated cheap propaganda by claiming the current New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration has failed to pay Mr Mahama his monthly salaries since he left office.
Persons close to the former President appear to be comfortably peddling falsehoods that Mr. Mahama, unlike other former presidents, has not received his constitutionally approved monthly salary since losing the 2016 general elections humiliatingly.
The former president has however been regularly receiving his salaries.
Special aide to former President Mahama, Joyce Bawa Mogtari told an Accra-based Okay FM yesterday that the current Akufo-Addo administration has failed to fulfill its mandate of paying the former President his emoluments as spelt out in the Professor Dora Francisca Edu-Buandoh Presidential Committee on Article 71 Office Holders.
The spokeswoman said Lordina Mahama has been saddled with the responsibility of taking care of Mr Mahama, adding that former First Lady is a hard working woman with a lot of resources at her disposal.
She claimed they have been following up on the salary issues at the Office of the President but nothing has been done to address their concerns.
However, documents available to DAILY GUIDE clearly show that the former president has received his full monthly salary since the NPP took office.
In fact, Mr. Mahama has so far been paid more than half a million Ghana cedis since the NPP took office on January 7, 2017.
The documents reveal that the current government was initially unable to pay the salary, as it had not settled down, and this position is supported by the fact that government at the beginning of its term did not pay its own staff.
The documents, however, reveal that former president John Dramani Mahama received his salary arrears of GH¢29,899 for 12 months, totalling GH¢388,687 which was paid into his ADB account at Adabraka Branch.
In fact the documents show that the former president has been consistently receiving his monthly salary of GH?29,899 from January 2018 to July 18, 2018.
As at now, a net total of GH¢568,049.00 has been paid into the Agricultural Development Bank (ADB) account of former President Mahama.
Special Aides
The documents revealed that approval was given to pay all the six staff at the office of the former president.
Interestingly, the six staff are taking home an annual salary of a whopping GH¢688,488.00 at the end of every year.
The breakdown of the figures indicates that Joyce Bawa Mogtari, who has been designated as a special assistant, is taking home a quarterly salary of GH¢56,511 and an annual salary of GH¢226,044, translating into GH¢18,837, which is more than the salary she took as Deputy Minister of Transport.
Another special assistant, Fidel Amakye Owusu, is also taking home quarterly and annual salary similar to Ms. Mogtari.
Three special aides to the former President, Wisdom Peter Awuku, Ernest Nkrumah Addo and Felix Kwakye Ofosu, a former deputy minister, are each taking home a quarterly salary of GH¢18,000 and an annual salary of GH¢72,000.
A driver at the same office is also taking a quarterly salary of GH¢5,100 and an annual salary of GH¢20,400.
It is therefore surprising to hear cohorts of the former president peddling falsehoods that their salaries have not been paid just to paint the current administration black in the eyes of Ghanaians.
In their attempt to defend their unjustifiable comments, they claimed Mr. Mahama provided all the senior aides to former Presidents with vehicles and fuel.
It is a fact that all the vehicles of former President John Agyekum Kufuor were taken from him and he had to make arrangements for his own vehicles during the tenure of the Mills-Mahama administration.
It took a long time for previous Mahama administration to get an office space for Mr Kufuor.
DAILY GUIDE has learnt that the state is paying for Mr Mahama’s accommodation even though he is living in his own house at the back of the Ghana Trade Fair Centre, having moved from Chain Homes at Burma Camp where he resided after leaving office.
BY Gibril Abdul Razak