The Double Salary Scandal: Did The Lawmakers Know What They Were Doing?

Drawers of double salaries are in double trouble. Who would have known that some legislators in Ghana’s Parliament were drawing salaries as Members of Parliament (MP’s) and also receiving their monthly salaries as ministers of state, which is contrary to the law?

The windfall shock that swathed the lawmakers has come alive with different horns. Of course, it couldn’t get any murkier than this. NeedI ask again who would have known about this scandal? It’s a scandal that would have been kept secret, swept under the rugs, had the NDC won the 2016 general elections.And why would they make it known to the public when they knew or know that the whole thing smells putrid and could damage their reputation.

Well, the cat is out. They didn’t succeed. The Criminal Investigation Department (CID0 of Ghana Police Service have taken the driver’s seat. According to the police the alleged double salaries saga “is contrary to Section 124 (1) of the Criminal and other Offences Act 1960 (Act 29) as amended in 2012 (Act 849). Section 124 relates to the offence of stealing.”

Thank goodness the Addo Storm has changed the dynamics of the game just so you know who’s a patriot. And there will be many how’s, many why’s and what’s. I’m still wondering, what was going through the minds of these public officials? The windfall they’d received a several years ago is potentially generating a huge trouble for them now. It could end their political career and they may even end up in jail, one political pundit has suggested.

Did the Lawmakers know what they were doing?
Let me first tease your mind with this question: Did they really think they’d hit the multi-million-dollar jackpot? Be mindful, a bank error in your favour isn’t a flavor to enjoy says this writer. Why, because they’ll figure it out and you will be in trouble if you were paid double and failed to alert them and kept the cash.

Certainly, they knew what they were doing. How does a thief pray? ‘The Lord is my Sheperd I shall never get caught.’ Presumably, this is what might’ve informed the MP’S not to alert the Accountant-General’s Department or the banks: They’d found their bank balance much higher or fatter than it should be. It obviously looked juicier than it was before. And who wouldn’t be amazed to notice his/her bank account in that state? You’d be gripped by that moment of windfall shock. However, these questions would immediately cross your mind too:

Can I keep it you’d ask when you receive the first cheque or the first deposit? When the second and the subsequent ones find their way into the account you’d ask again can I keep them?Don’t forget, if you failed to alert the bank, please don't call yourself an honest individual. The reason, you virtually, cannot rob Peter twice turn around and tell, James that John is ‘John’.

Do you know what patriots or honest people do? Patriots love their countries and honest people don’t rob their nations. I stand to be corrected. I learned Majority Leader Osei Kyei-Mensah Bonsu once received a cheque from the presidency and another from parliament as his ex-gratia award. He returned the one from the presidency.

Here are a few serious questions we need to ask as a nation instead of baptising ourselves as usual with political colours. Did the MP’s notice that they’d been paid in excess inadvertently? If so, why didn’t they alert or inform the banks or the AG? Why didn’t they return the funds? It’s obvious they knew it was an error, and they weren’t supposed to keep them.

And now that action or inaction they took had created a whole confluence of events.

So far nine ex-government officials of the Mahama administration are reported to be embroiled in this controversial matter. The nine which include Minority Leader Haruna Iddrisu, Second Deputy Speaker and presidential hopeful Alban Bagbin, former Lands Minister Inusah Fuseini are assisting the police with investigations.

Already, Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah, MP for Ellembelle and former Minister of Energy and Petroleum and Nii Laryea Afotey Agbo, MP for Kpone Katamanso, who was the former Greater Accra Regional Minister, are said to have been interrogated by the police and granted bail. Reports also have it that a certain Bashir Fuseini Alhassan, who is believed to be ABA Fuseini, NDC MP for Sagnerigu and former deputy minister for the Northern Region, was there at the weekend and was made to write a statement before being admitted to bail.

The CID in a letter to each one of the suspects said they had received salaries as MPs and Ministers while serving under the erstwhile John Mahama administration, a charge the CID says was tantamount to stealing. But the suspects have vehemently denied.

Witch hunting
Wasn’t this expected? Even when they’ve allegedly been caught red-handed they still cry witch hunt. The Minority had accused the government of witch hunting. Notwithstanding the fact that some of them had tacitly admitted that they’d received some overpayments t. The accusation was made at a press conference held by the Minority group still denying the allegation that some of its members indeed had received double e salaries.

The minority leader, Haruna Iddrisu, was reported to have held the meeting with his three colleagues in the morning before honouring the CID invitation. They appeared individually with their lawyers at the CID headquarters in Accra and after writing their statements, they were said to have been subjected to questioning before they were granted police inquiry bail, according to the reports.

Kwaku Baako Jr. Editor-in-chief of the New Crusading Guide Newspaper has weighed into the double salary scandal saga. “If the MPs consciously provided these double bank accounts purposefully for the payment of salaries, then it has criminal implications. It comes with a huge integrity deficit, a big one for this country and I am beginning to see why the CID is involved,” he said.

“How on earth can you receive a double salary – one as an MP and the other as a minister – and it will not strike you that something odd is happening?” Mr. Baako stated.

Meanwhile, the Majority Leader Osei Kyei Mensah-Bonsu has claimed that Haruna Iddrisu the Minority Leader in Parliament had spoken to the president seeking intervention on the matter.

“The Minority Leader has spoken to the president that some intervention must be done in order to save the image of Parliament,” he told Joy News’ Evans Mensah on Tuesday.According to him, Haruna Iddrisu was afraid the matter might dent the reputation of Parliament if the criminal proceedings currently underway should continue.

This is not the first time Ghana’s Parliament has been hit by a scandal. In 2005, politician and NPP former Member of Parliament Eric Amoateng was arrested for drug trafficking and the Majority Leader reminded Ghanaians that that corporate embarrassment the House suffered dented its image

“I am not involved but I must admit as a Member of Parliament if a colleague is involved in something it affects all of us. Remember when one person went and dealt in drugs, the whole of the then-Majority group, including the Parliament of Ghana was roped into it. If it affects an MP it affects the integrity of all us. That is why we are trying a good way out of it,” he revealed.

Haruna Iddrisu in an earlier interview with Joy News blamed the matter on systemic failure. But according to Mr. Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu, the matter is far more serious than merely being overpaid or underpaid as a minister or MP.

Call for intercession
I said this in my previous write-up titled: ‘The Unnecessary Pressure’, 2017. Yes, it’s true the pressure on public office holders, especially MP’s from their constituents is overwhelming. Way stressful. They pay medical bills, electricity bills, water bills, school fees you name it. But the question is must that guarantee one to rob his/her nation? I think greed is driving this phenomenon and I tend to oppose the view by some folks that these individuals in question should be pardoned.

This is an act of dishonesty no question about that and once it’s become a police case it’s no longer in the hands of the president. It’s solely now a matter between the individuals and the law. AndRule of Law says we’re all equal before the law and no individual is above the law, not even the president. So let’s allow the law to take its course. Also, I believe we would be setting a bad precedent if we allow the MP’s to go unpunished.

For example, if a goat thief could be jailed for stealing a four-legged animal how much more the one that’s caused financial loss to the state? Yes, I get the point, Haruna and several of them are remarkable individuals. That reminds me of Anthony David Weiner—a former Democratic congressman. As an astute politician and a promising star but he was upset by a sex scandal that ended his political career.

In conclusion, our laws must not be seen as purposely tailored to catch the flies, the average Ghanaian, the carpenter or the plumber. But they must also be viewed as capable of dealing with the Bimbos and the influential in society.