First Lady rejects salary payment decision, refunds allowance

H.E Mrs Rebecca Akufo-Addo has stated that she has decided to refund all monies paid to her as allowance from the day of the President’s day of assumption of office from January 2021 till date amounting to GH899,097.84.

In a statement signed by the Communications Director of the Office of the First Lady, Korkor Bleboo, the First Lady of the Republic, Mrs Rebecca Akufo-Addo has been drawn to the recommendations of the committee pursuant to Article 71 which among things, seek to regularise the payment of allowances to spouses of the current President and Vice President, former Heads of State, Presidents and Vice Presidents, respectively, as part of the privileges due to the President and Vice President under Article 71 of the constitution.

“It is important to state that payment of such allowances existed and was made to previous First Ladies in the course of the 4th Republic. Prior to that Mrs Rebecca Akufo-Addo did not request any allowance.

"She only received that which existed and attached to her status albeit informal”, it explained

“That notwithstanding, the public discussion has been laced with some negative opinions, in some cases, which she finds distasteful, seeking to portray her as a venal, self-serving and self-centred woman, who does not care about the plight of the ordinary Ghanaian”, it added

“The First Lady has also decided not to accept any monies that have been allocated to be paid to her pursuant to the recommendations of the Ntiamoah-Baidu committee, as approved by Parliament.

"She is doing this as a purely personal decision without prejudice to the right of others, and not to undermine the propriety of the process undertaken by Parliament”, it stressed

Ahenkorah Odura Mary