Member of Parliament (MP) for Sagnarigu, A.B.A Fuseini has described Martin Amidu’s double salary claims as politically motivated and targeted at the National Democratic Congress (NDC).
Former Special Prosecutor, Martin Amidu alleged that President Akufo-Addo and his government had leveraged the Double Salary Scandal and other criminal cases in which some NDC members were complicit, to compel NDC MPs to approve his ministerial appointees.
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In his latest epistle, Martin Amidu said that President Akufo-Addo instructed the then-Attorney General, Gloria Akufo, not to file charges against NDC Parliamentarians-Ministers found to have received double salaries.
But reacting to this allegation, the Sagnarigu MP told Samuel Eshun on the Happy Morning Show: “Assuming the double salaries were paid, why won’t they go after those who paid, or for them, they don’t have questions to answer? Is that the law? Secondly, go and read the Public Financial Management Act (PMFA) even if you have established that you have overpaid someone, you take steps to notify the person that he or she has been overpaid. This goes beyond partisan lines because Hon. Kyei Mensah Bonsu was mentioned in this case, the outgoing speaker of parliament was mentioned in the same thing so why are you concentrating on NDC members. This is politically motivated”.
He explained that Martin Amidu’s allegation had no basis as at the time MPs did not receive any salary not to talk of double salary.
“The first question I want to ask is that was there a salary in the first place to even talk about a double salary. Article 71 states that upon assumption of office the president will set up a committee that will make recommendations to determine the salaries of members of parliament and other officeholders. As at the time they were saying this the committee had not been set up and so MPs weren’t getting salaries”, he said.
In 2018, it emerged that ABA Fuseini and other NDC MPs who served as Ministers were being investigated by the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) for allegedly taking double salaries.
Media reports revealed that many Ministers, who served under former President John Mahama, took double salaries for four years, while others received double salaries for two and three years, probably because they were reshuffled.
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The immediate past Special Prosecutor, Martin Amidu, has attributed his failure to prosecute these MPs accused of taking a double salary to the President, stating that he [Akufo-Addo] had used the criminal cases as leverage to get the NDC outside Parliament to instruct its members on the Appointments Committee to approve all Ministerial appointments.