Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, the minister of information, has admitted that he is not paid for his ministerial duties.
He claimed that because he is a Member of Parliament, his salary as a Minister is the same as it would be for any other position.
In response to questions about the size of the government, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah made it clear that the public’s attention should not just be on the budget for salaries, but also on how money is allocated between political appointees and non-political government employees.
The Minister claimed in an interview with Peace FM that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo had made it a rule that MPs who also serve as ministers are not given separate salaries.
“If you talk about the size of the government…I believe you are talking about the size of the compensation budget, more especially the money which is used to pay government workers. That is divided into two parts, one part has to do with those who are not political appointees, like those I have been mentioning this morning, the rotational nurses, police, and others, when you talk about the compensation budget, there is part of it…but I believe that the one people are talking about has to do with political appointees.
“It is true that Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo explained why he choose a certain number of ministers but there was a clause he added in which he explained that the majority of ministers he has appointed are Members of Parliament, and because they are members of parliament, they don’t take anything extra, it doesn’t cost the taxpayer anything extra on the compensation side.
“For me, that I am talking to you… they don’t pay me one cedi as Minister of State, because Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s policy is that, if you are a Member of Parliament and he gives you a minister or deputy minister, it is not even up to you to make a choice that you want this or not, you get paid on your MP salary. So, when people make this argument about the size of the government, the reality is that the majority of ministers who are Members of Parliament, don’t get paid extra,” he said.
He emphasized that both categories are covered by the compensation budget, with a sizable share going to non-political appointees like police officers and rotating nurses.
