- "So If we continue to say we are poor and we are constantly lamenting our helplessness in raising revenue, this is one of them.... so I just like the fact that the Togbe has been courageous to come out to tell the nation to tell the nation this is one of the waste pipelines that we have in the statement, I am proud of him, I am very proud of the decision to refund the amount."
Professor Baffour Agyeman-Duah, a former UN senior governance advisor has commended the Agbogbomefia of the Asogli State, Togbe Afede XIV for returning some GHC365,000 ex-gratia paid to him as a member of the Council of State.
Speaking to Kwaku Nhyira-Addo on The Asaase Breakfast Show on Tuesday (7 June), Agyeman-Duah described the gesture as courageous.
“This is a very interesting situation, hugely of interest to me,” Agyeman-Duah said. “Particularly because I have been talking about the Council of State, but you see what Togbe has done is to dramatise one of the ways that this country wastes resources.”
“And as he says in his statement, he comes to the council and you pay him every month with other benefits and after all that something that is voluntary you send GHC365,000. You calculate, if there are 30 members of the council and every four years you are doing it, how much money are we spending on people who might not need it?” he asked.
“So, if we continue to say we are poor and we are constantly lamenting our helplessness in raising revenue, this is one of them… So I just like the fact that the Togbe has been courageous to come out to tell the nation this is one of the waste pipelines that we have. I am proud of him, I am very proud of the decision to refund the amount,” Agyeman-Duah said.
Listen to Professor Baffour Agyeman-Duah in the attached audio:
Background
Togbe Afede XIV has returned GHC365,392.67 paid to him as ex-gratia for serving on the Council of State between 2017 and 2020.
According to the paramount chief, it is inappropriate to be paid ex-gratia since he was given monthly wages for serving on the council.
“I did not think the payment was made to trap me, as is being speculated. I believe it was paid to everybody who served on the Council of State. However, I thought that extra payment was inappropriate for a short, effectively part-time work, for which I received a monthly salary and was entitled to other privileges. So, I was very uncomfortable with it,” Togbe Afede XIV said in a statement.
“After weeks of trying, I obtained advice on how to refund inappropriate payments to the State, and on March 4, 2022, I made the refund into the Controller & Accountant General’s Department Suspense Account at the Bank of Ghana.”
Below is the full statement:
Fred Dzakpata
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