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A spokesperson of the NDC flagbearer hopeful, Dr Kwabena Duffuor has revealed that his candidate did not receive salary or ex gratia when he served the state.
Speaking in an interview on JoyNews’ The Pulse on Thursday, Edem Asinyo stated that the former Finance Minister returned the ex gratia paid to him without making it public.
“Dr Duffuor as a public servant did not take his salary, when he was given ex gratia as a matter of principle, he handed it over for development,” he said.
Mr. Asinyo was reacting to former President John Mahama’s announcement, during the launch of his campaign, that if he returns to power one of his priorities will be scraping ex gratia payments to Article 71 officeholders.
Although Mr Asinyo commended the decision, he noted that what Mr Mahama wants to implement when given the nod is something his competitor had already done.
“This is a man who as Finance Minister aside from performing excellently, he never took salary. This is a man as Finance Minister and the Member of the NDC gave his ex gratia back. So, in fact, what they want to do now is something he has done before. So when we talking about experience, he’s lived it,” he told host, Blessed Sogah.
He continued “so in terms of principles, in terms of someone they can trust to deliver these things they are promising, he is already doing it and he is going to do it.”
He, however, noted that others who held political office cannot speak on whether they took ex gratia or not.
In response to the claim that Dr Duffuor returned his ex gratia, spokesperson of John Mahama, Felix Kwakye Ofosu said it is false.
This, he explained, is because while serving as the Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr Duffuor had better conditions of service than a Finance Minister.
In light of this, he stated that it is quite misleading to create such an impression.
“The Governor of the Bank of Ghana retires on his salary. So he made the choice between the package as Finance Minister and the package as governor and he chose to stick with his entitlement as governor even on retirement,” he emphasised.
