Parliament must accept blame — Austin Gamey (Front Page)

A consultant who helped to draft the Chinery-Hesse Report on presidential ex gratia and other end-of-service benefits has asked Members of Parliament (MPs) to accept blame for the confusion the package has generated and find ways of resolving it.
Mr Austin Gamey, the consultant, who had previously served as MP for eight years, said it was up to Parliament to have taken into consideration the current economic conditions before giving its approval to the recommendations.
In his view, it would do the legislators and the nation a lot of good if they accepted the fact that due diligence was not done to the process of studying the package before it was approved, instead of pleading alibi and shifting blame.
He said looking at the volume of public outcry that had greeted the announcement, it would be better for the leadership of both the Majority and the Minority sides in Parliament to come up with a joint motion that would enable them to have a second look at the issue.
Mr Gamey, who is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Pulse Institute Africa, said because of his knowledge of labour and related matters, he was invited by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), together with 10 other consultants, in 2006 to work for the committee.
He explained that the Chinery-Hesse Committee started its work between 2004 and 2005, adding that he helped it by supplying the members with some relevant information that included materials from the Greenstreet Committee to be factored into the current report.
The former MP, who served on the ticket of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), said Parliament was a body that could regulate itself and advised that since the House, as well as the Executive, was there to serve the people of Ghana, the two should be prepared to listen to the complaints of the citizenry and act accordingly.
After the final report on emoluments for constitutional office holders from the Chinery-Hesse Committee had been made public, some MPs expressed shock at its content, just like some members of the public, although the MPs were reported to be in the House when the report was adopted on January 6, 2009.
Some of them said although they had taken part in the closed-door sitting that adopted the final report, they had not been made aware that it contained emoluments for ex-presidents.
A report in the Daily Graphic of yesterday indicated that although some MPs had denied knowledge of the adoption of the final report, investigations had revealed that the report had been adopted by the House just before the Fourth Parliament was dissolved on January 6, 2009.
It came out that the report had been adopted during a closed-door session of the day’s sitting, during which many MPs from both sides of the then Parliament were present.
Some of the MPs who were present, however, argued that they had not been aware of that aspect of the report that spelt out the emoluments for ex-President J.A. Kufuor and other future ex-presidents.
The Deputy Majority Leader, Mr John Akologu Tia, revealed to the Daily Graphic that because the House had been in a hurry for a ceremony to dissolve Parliament and also the fact that MPs had been anxious to know about their ex gratia, when that portion of the report was read to them they hurriedly adopted the report, only to know later that it also contained the emoluments for ex-presidents.