Our Prez must pay tax - Nduom

Dr Papa Kwesi Nduom, the 2012 presidential candidate of the Progressive People’s Party (PPP), has thrown his support for the draft bill requiring that the President pays tax.

The Constitution Review Implementation Committee (CRIC) has submitted a draft bill for the amendment of entrenched provisions in the 1992 Constitution to the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice.

This, Dr Nduom stated, gave him hope that “we are about to arrive at a truly democratic and workable system of governance,” and, therefore, called on all Members of Parliament and the entire country to support the amendment. 

Additionally, he suggested that civil society, political parties and leaders of religious, business and social/educational organisations must lobby Parliament and Cabinet for the amendment of Article 78, which requires the President to appoint majority of ministers from among MPs.  

According to Dr Nduom, with the current constitutional arrangement, MPs end up only going to the legislature to “catch the eye of the President” to be made ministers.  

“I have served as minister while not an MP and have served as an MP and minister; I have also served as an MP and not a minister. The two positions are demanding if we expect excellence and no one should be allowed to occupy both positions. It does not work,” he stated.

In his view,  ministers cannot give priority to the work of Parliament as the workload and expectations of the executive are too big to combine with lawmaking.  

Separation of powers

Ghana, according to Dr Nduom, needs effective separation of powers – legislature, the executive and the judiciary, saying, “When MPs also serve as ministers, separation between the legislature and the executive is severely compromised to the detriment of the nation.”  

In the view of Dr Nduom, Ghana currently has a system patterned after military dictatorship where power resides in only one person.

Draft Bill

“One item that excites me is that the draft bill contains a provision that will require the President, the Vice-President and other Article 71 public office holders, including the Speaker of Parliament, the Chief Justice, Justices of the Supreme Court, the Chairman and members of the Council of State, ministers of state, deputy ministers of state and Members of Parliament to pay tax to the state,” he stated.

He wondered what the framers of the constitution were thinking when they decided that our President especially should be exempted from paying tax.  

In his view, this led to a “do as I say and not do as I do” mentality in government.  

He pointed out that the current exemption from taxes tells Ghanaians that before the tax authorities, some people are more equal or special than others so much so that they should not be taxed. 

This, Dr Nduom pointed out, reinforced the dependency syndrome in the higher-ups of the public service.  

“When our President in Ghana pays tax and does it on time as is done in countries such as the USA, then he/she can turn around with full moral authority and chase the rest of us to follow the good example,” he stated.

He said most people in this part of the world were followers so having our Presidents not paying tax had not helped us to raise the revenue the state needed for development projects and to fund important constitutional provisions such as free, compulsory, universal basic education (FCUBE).

He further said he was intrigued by the provision that would require the inclusion of representatives of political parties with representation in Parliament on the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC).  

Why political parties with representation in Parliament, he asked and pointed out that “Where is that found in our Constitution?”

Listen to Ghanaians

In line with this, Dr Nduom urged the CRIC to listen to the majority of Ghanaians and allow the people to elect their Metropolitan/Municipal/District Chief Executives freely without conditions that involved the President making choices of who should contest election.  

“Our local assemblies are today used as political agencies rather than tools for development,” he stated.

He said it was this plain truth that had prevented NDC-Rawlings, NPP-Kufuor, NDC-Atta-Mills and now NDC-Mahama from allowing amendment to the 1992 Constitution for unfettered election of our Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives (MMDCEs),” he stated.

This political approach to local government, Dr Nduom stated, had led to very slow development in the villages, towns and cities. 

He further urged President Mahama to put partisan politics aside and choose a strong path to development, explaining that “this he can do by announcing a decision to recommend an amendment to the Constitution to allow the people to elect their MMDCEs without any interference from the President.”

He said local areas remained underdeveloped mainly because the leaders, the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives were selected by one person – the President – based on political patronage.

According to Dr Nduom, It is the view of the Mahama Administration that in decentralising in a unitary state, a delicate balance ought to be struck between central control and local autonomy.

The government, had therefore decided that Article 243(1) of the Constitution should be amended for the President to nominate a minimum of five (5) persons who would be vetted by the Public Services Commission (PSC) for competence after which three (3) nominees would contest in a public election,  Dr Nduom stated.

This proposal he said would apply to all categories of assemblies – Metropolitan, Municipal and District.  

The Government’s White Paper on the Report of the Constitution Review Commission (CRC) differs significantly from the will of the people as told to the commission.  

The commission watered down the people’s choices but specifically recommended “… that Parliament should be empowered to determine specific mechanisms for choosing MMDCEs, which should vary according as metropolis, a municipality or a district”.  

Dr Nduom therefore suggested to the CRIC and Ghanaians to reject the Mahama Administration’s thinking about governance at the local level and give power back to the people.