Assembly members are questioning the government’s inability to fulfill its promise to pay them their allowances from the Consolidated Fund.
The disappointed assembly members claim the president was yet to fulfill his promise which he made at a meeting with them prior to the 2016 elections.
Assembly member for Ridge Nhyiaso in the Ashanti Region, Abraham Boadi, expressed his disquiet about the development and has cautioned that failure to pay them would defeat the government’s quest to build a strong local government structure at the grassroots.
“Assembly members are less than 6000, so if the government decides to pay GH₵1,000 to each assembly member as allowance, how much will that cost the country? It is feasible for the government to pay assembly members from the Consolidated Fund and if you want to build a strong local government system structure and the assembly members are not paid, how is that going to be possible?
“We have three universal adult suffrage elections in the country that is the President, Parliamentarians and Assembly members. The president is being paid from the Consolidated Fund, the MPs are also paid salaries and allowances from the Consolidated Fund, why are the assembly members left out?
“President Nana Akufo-Addo promised assembly members that allowances will be paid through the Consolidated Fund and we believe the president can do it, if we’ve been able to pay about 20,000 youth, how come we can’t afford to pay just 6000 assembly members?” Mr Boadi lamented. –kasapfmonline.com
