Members of Ghana’s popular pressure group, the Committee for Joint Action (CJA) hit the road again today February 3 to register their protest against the retirement package put in place for past political leaders, now being popularly refered to as "ex-gratia".
As it is the protest is targeted against out-going government officials who have "clandestinely" aproved for themselves huge retirement benefits, that do not match up to the economic realities of the country which has just come out of the Heavily Indebted Poor Country (HIPC) initiative.
The group is asking the current government not to go on with the implementation of the package until it is revised and made commensurate with the current economic realities of the country.
The package has received so much condemnation from the general public but due to its parliamentary approval, people are anticipating that the current government will be forced to implement it, if nothing is done. This is because the current president in a bid not to be seen as witch hunting the past government might allow it.
But as things stand now, the implementation of that package will be detrimental not only to the government, but to the whole economy.
The package include: six chauffeur driven cars replaceable every for years for an ex-president, two presidential houses with staff, sixty days of foreign travels with assistant paid for by the state every year, huge sums of money which runs into millions of dollars etc. There are different packages for the vice president and other government officials.
The CJA has members who are leading members of the ruling party. From the look of things, that package will be reviewed drastically.
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