Mahama ministers received double ex gratia too – Gary Nimako

Some former government appointees did not only receive double pay, they also took double ex gratia, a senior member of the NPP’s communications team has alleged.

Mr. Gary Nimako Marfo said there was ample evidence backing his claim, evidence he said would be made public in the not too distant future.

A number of appointees of former President John Mahama are being investigated for allegedly receiving double salaries.

This involved Members of Parliament who were appointed either as ministers of deputy ministers.

The Criminal Investigations Department of the Ghana Police Service suspects that some of the appointees received salaries as MPs and also as Ministers.

A number of them have been written to by the police to appear before investigators.

They have denied the allegations, insisting that, if at all, they would not have known about the double payments.

The former ministers have accused the government of using the police to intimidate them and to achieve dishonourable propaganda purposes.

Discussing the controversy on Joy FM/MultiTV’s news analysis programme, Newsfile Saturday, private legal practitioner, Gary Nimako claimed that the issue was more serious than just the case of double salaries.

He said the suspects received ex gratia both as legislators and as members of the executive.

He also dispelled claims by the Minority in Parliament that the CID withdrew some of the letters and apologised to the persons involved because they were wrongly cited.

He said no such apologies were rendered by the police. Instead, he insisted the CID only called the persons involved to reschedule their interrogation.

Former Deputy Communications Minister, Felix Kwakye Ofosu, who was also on Newsfile, said the investigations were nothing but a diversionary tactic.

He said the police only got involved after the Minority started piling pressure on the government over the US-Ghana security cooperation agreement.

Re-echoing the denials of wrongdoing by the named appointees, Mr Kwakye Ofosu revealed he had seen bank statements of some of the accused “and when you look at it, there is no indication of any double payment.”

He is convinced the CID is acting under the instructions of government and will struggle “to find any wrongdoing against these people.”

The former deputy minister found it curious that officials of the controller and accountant general’s department “have gone unscathed after what they themselves say is a monumental error because it could only have been paid in error.”