Ministers don’t take Gh¢12,000 allowance – Omane Boamah
The Minister for Communications, Dr Edward Omane Boamah, has refuted media reports that said new allowances have been approved for ministers of state.The Chronicle newspaper on Monday reported that ministers of state in addition to their salaries also earn duty, special, entertainment and wardrobe allowances totaling over Gh¢12,000.
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But in a statement responding to the newspaper publication, Dr Boamah described the report as “false and a fabrication.”
“…no Ghanaian Minister enjoys an allowance as part of his/her salary except those entitled to rent refund because they do not stay in a government-owned residence.”
“Why a news medium will choose to imagine such amounts, knowing very well they are false, is surprising, but Ghanaians can be assured that their ministers are not entitled to the said allowances, and do not receive same”, the Minister stated.
Even though he did not explain how much the ministers of state earn, he said a Cabinet Minister does not earn GH¢10,000, let alone a non-Cabinet Minister.
He urged the Chronicle newspaper and other news mediums that have made it a regular strategy now to deviate from the tenets of responsible journalism and publishing deliberate and concocted stories as news, to “turn over a new leaf for the sake of renewing the confidence of readers, listeners and viewers in their mediums.”
He expressed disappointment in a former Deputy Minister for finance, Dr. Gheysika Agambila, for jumping to condemn Ministers of State without verifying the truth or otherwise of the Chronicle’s story.
According to the Minister for Communications, he does not want to believe that the Chronicle publication was “yet another set-up by the opposition parties to push out false news and prepare their officials to run down government officials.”
