The Member of Parliament for Builsa South, Clement Apaak, says there is nothing wrong with some legislators now opposing the emoluments for spouses of sitting and former Presidents and Vice Presidents despite approving it earlier in Parliament.
After filing a lawsuit to challenge the Presidential Spouse emoluments, Mr. Apaak said he had not seen the report of the Prof. Ntiamoa-Baidu Committee that recommended the emoluments.
The five-member emoluments committee was set up in June 2019 by President Nana Akufo-Addo, to make recommendations on the salaries and other gratuities of Article 71 officeholders.
“As a matter of fact, I had not and many of my colleagues in the seventh Parliament had not seen it and that is another issue that we ought to bring to public attention,” Mr. Apaak said on Eyewitness News.
But when questioned about failings in oversight from legislators, the MP said, “there is nothing that stops me from changing my mind if I feel now that it is not justified.”
“Even if I was sleeping, I am now awake. If I committed a wrong, I am correcting that wrong. It is as simple as that,” he added.
Mr. Apaak also further said his lawsuit, alongside the South Dayi MP, Rockson Dafeamakpor, was an adequate indicator of remorse.
“By the action that I have taken, that in itself suffices to indicate that if I was unconsciously part of approving this, I am rectifying the situation.”
Among other things, the two MPs contend that the Prof. Ntiamoa-Baidu Committee was only mandated to make recommendations in respect of salaries, allowances payable, facilities and privileges of Article 71 office holders under the 1992 Constitution.
Aside from the lawsuit by these two MPs, the Bono Regional Chairman of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) Kwame Baffoe Abronye, has also prayed the apex court to rule that the Presidential Spouse Emoluments is null and void.