'Stop politically calling us 'double salaries'; it's caused by weakness in systems' — Speaker Bagbin

The Speaker of Parliament, Rt. Hon. Alban Bagbin says Members of Parliament (MP) cited for receiving double salaries should not be blamed.

According to him, they are only victims of weaknesses in the system.

Addressing Parliament on Tuesday when the house resumed sitting, Alban Bagbin assured that Parliament will strengthen its partnership with relevant state institutions to avoid such occurrences going forward.

“It is important for us to erase the perception of the public on these matters of overpayments which are wrongly being politically called double salaries. It’s a weakness of the system and all presidential committees have commented on these matters,” the Speaker of Parliament told the house.

Rt. Alban Bagbin added, “And it is from the experience of 1993 up to date which has led to some of these unfortunate overpayments because of the movements of Members of Parliament from just and ordinarily MP to becoming a deputy minister and the movement of documentation to be able to capture it sometimes will have this overlap.”

On other matters, Minority Leader Haruna Iddrisu in his welcome address in Parliament called for a probe into the declassification of the Achimota Forest Reserve land.

“Mr. Speaker, there is the news of declassification of Achimota forest and public officers and politicians grabbing lands in the name of the republic. Without any hesitation this must be treated as an urgent matter the President should open public inquiry into the declassification of the Achimota and let the public know who bought what and how much.

“We need to appreciate and based on the reliance on the Executive Instrument 144 the Forest Act of 1927 must remind the President and his leadership that they should go and look at the land use and special planning of land ACT 926 retooling and reclassification the mandate was not given to the President,” Haruna Iddrisu said.