NDC MP suggests there’s nothing wrong with welfare package for parliamentarians
- South Dayi MP, Rockson Dafeamekpor says MPs deserve a proper retirement welfare package
- Parliamentarians in Ghana say they need a welfare system aside the ex-gratia they take
The Member of Parliament for South Dayi in the Volta Region, Rockson Dafeamekpor has justified why parliamentarians deserve a retirement welfare package aside the ex-gratia they take.
According to the National Democratic Congress (NDC) MP, Ghanaians do not understand want an ex-gratia entails.
“In fact, when members are given this ex-gratia, they are put into an economic disadvantage because the value of the money depreciates over time,” he said in an interview with Citi News.
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Rockson noted that the ex-gratia MPs receive is “their back pay” and they are entitled to that. He opined that, it should be totally different from the welfare system for legislators after they exit parliament.
“It is [ex-gratia] the back pay that I am entitled to. No! It is not anybody’s money. It is money I should have actually earned at a time I was holding office.”
Speaker of Parliament, Rt. Hon Professor Aaron Mike Oquaye has asked the House to take steps to implement a pension scheme for MPs to cushion them during their retirement.
There have been reports of some ex-MPs in the past lamenting about their impoverished situation after leaving parliament.
Despite the benefit of receiving ex-gratia after every four years, some of the MPs, who, apart from their core mandate of making laws also provide for the upkeep of their constituents, end up in abject poverty when they leave parliament.
Speaking on the condition of some former MPs, Prof Oquaye said on Thursday, May 30, 2019, that “the House must seriously consider matters relating to former members of the House”.
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“We all know that the lives of many former members are not as we will like to see it and it pains me personally to see how they look like after they have served and people think these are people who are making money …It is painful. People do not have money here," the Speaker of Parliament said.
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Source: YEN.com.gh
