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DUNCAN OPOKU BOATENG
PRIVATE MAIL BAG
KUMASI
COMMISSION FOR
HUMAN RIGHTS AND ADMINISTRATIVE JUSTICE
KUMASI
JULY 15, 2021
DEAR SIR/MADAM
PETITION TO AFFIRM
OR REGULARISE THE EMOLUMENT ARRANGEMENTS FOR BOTH THE INCUMBENT AND PAST FIRST AND SECOND LADIES AND THE DETERMINATION OF WHETHER OR NOT THE CALL FOR THE REFUND OF RETROSPECTIVE PAID ALLOWANCES TO BOTH INCUMBENT AND PAST
1ST AND 2ND LADIES
PERSUANT OF THEIR ADMINISTRATIVE ROLES AND STEWARDSHIP TO GHANA ADMISSIBLE OR INADMISSIBLE IN THE FACE OF HUMAN RIGHTS AND ADMINISTRATIVE JUSTICE
I am writing to implore your high office as constitutional body mandated to investigate issues conflicting human rights and administrative justice that has generated public furore and confusion in determining the emoluments of 1st and 2nd ladies both incumbent and the outgone in the face of human rights and administrative justice for justicious redress.
First and second ladies have since the era of president Jerry John Rawlings, may his soul rest as God has prescribed for him peace or otherwise, have been very influential and contributive to the fast growing and development of Ghana.
Prior to their immense contributions to the nation, president Rawlings thought it wise to provide preferential treatment to the 1st and 2nd ladies in order to induce their efforts engineered into the progress of Ghana.
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Some of the preferential treatments are as follows:
as a result of the advocacy and humanitarian roles the 1st and 2nd ladies play, some expenses of the spouses of the Presidents and Vice Presidents in carrying out their expected roles are funded by the Office of the President(by the state).
These expenses include fuelling of vehicles, provision of security, clerical staff, stationery, hosting of local and foreign guests, including allowances payable to spouses of the Presidents, Vice Presidents, former Presidents, former Vice Presidents, and former Heads of State from president Nkrumah to president Mahama.
This preferential offers to support the WIVES of incumbent and past presidents and vice presidents have since been supported by all the successive governments of president Kuffour, president Mills, President Mahama and now by president Akuffo Addo.
This emoluments provision was not done under carpet but by the presidents and cabinet approval – the executive powers of Ghana.
THE CONTENTIONS FOR PETITIONING YOUR HIGH OFFICE FOR YOUR VIRDICT
The Provisions as aforementioned which were supervised and certified by the executive powers of Ghana not by only one government but by succession of governments for decades could this be termed:
1) an illegality or unconstitutionality?
2) considering the role the 1st and 2nd ladies play in governance is it illegal for paying them for the services they are rendering the state just because salaries of 1st and 2nd ladies are not captured in Ghana’s constitution and that their services should be honorary dispensed?
3) are the services contributed to the building of Ghana by the 1st and 2nd ladies irrelevant, unnecessary, unrewarding and inefficient and that they deserve no allowance nor salary?
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4) the offices occupied by the 1st and 2nd ladies are state owned meaning they are not operating from their private entities or domestic homes, if their offices are not necessary and relevant, why has CHRAJ been watchful for the operationalization of an illegality for decades?
5) deducing from “4” above, must the offices of the 1st and 2nd ladies be closed and that their state sponsored clerical staff be redundant and retrenched and add them to the problems of unemployment in the country?
6) the laws of Ghana has no retrospective effect, even if today your office disapproves the statutory emoluments of the 1st and 2nd ladies as baseless, must the 1st and 2nd ladies both incumbent and past refund all allowances paid to them not because they are/were the WIVES of presidents and vice presidents but by the virtue of the necessary, beneficial and productive services they have rendered and are still rendering Ghana?
7) assuming any of the 1st and 2nd ladies both incumbent and past as you are presiding over my petition has refunded all allowances as a result of pressure or anger or even by will power, what would be your position on that. Would you say the refund is due or not due and that whoever received the refund has erred to suffer some penalties?
Also would you sanction anyone who orchestrated that humiliating move against the 1st and 2nd ladies to suffer some punishment to deter replication?
8) there have been pressures on former 1st ladies, particularly, her Excellency, Lordina Mahama, the wife of ex-president Mahama to refund every allowance paid to her since 2009, these monies were not paid to her just that she was the wife of president but per her contributory services and stewardship done the state. Your take as the determiner of human rights and administrative Justice, must Lordina comply to this pressures and refund all RETROSPECTIVE allowances?
9) as president Akuffo Addo’s government has set up emoluments body to determine and convert from allowance to salary of 1st and 2nd ladies, is it by law or by human rights appropriate in pursuance of their services to Ghana but not as the WIVES of presidents and vice presidents?
10) must the 1st and 2nd ladies both incumbent and past be paid at all, as in the case of the incumbent their by the beneficial services done the state and In the case of the past 1st and 2nd ladies for being the WIVES of past presidents and vice presidents?
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Ruling on this petition by fast tracking your verdict would aid the determination of the emoluments of the 1st and 2nd ladies to set the basis for whether or not to discontinue or continue the decision of the emoluments Committee set by president Akuffo Addo; also to appease the plight of Ghanaians against or for this 1st and 2nd ladies both incumbent and past emoluments brouhaha.
Yours faithfully
Signed
Boateng Duncan
aka
Bombay
Journalist
0559082725
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