“I receive only my monthly pension, like President Kufuor or President Rawlings was receiving until he died. That is all I get,” he said.
This statement comes on the back of comments by a section of the public that he is living from the same monetary benefits he speaks against regarding Article 71 Office holders.
One of which is the administrative New Patriotic Party’s Kwame Baffoe Abronye Bono Regions chairman, who argued that Mahama has received millions in ex-gratia payments.
John Mahama in response to the allegations by the Bono Regional Chairman of the NPP Abronye DC said he did not take any amount at any other time in his 25-year-old “distinguished” public service.
“I pay the electricity bill for my house, for my office. I pay the water bill for my house and my office. I live in my own accommodation so the state does not pay me anything for accommodation,” he said in an interview on TV3.
He also tabled fuel, medical bills, domestic staff, and flight tickets among the list of tabs he foots himself.
John Mahama added that the only lump sum received was “GH¢230,000 as salary arrears in 2013.”
“Normally when you leave, they approve what should be done for you, but it is not being done for me,” he added.
What Article 71 stipulates
Article 71 (1) and (2) of the 1992 Constitution stipulates that the determination of the salaries and allowances of the Executive, the Legislature, and the Judiciary paid from the Consolidated Fund would be determined by the President, on the recommendations of a committee of not more than five persons appointed by him and acting upon the advice of the Council of State.
In determining the salaries of the President, his Ministers, and political appointees, as well as the members of the Council of State, the Constitution states that Parliament will determine that based on the advice of the same committee.
Article 71 officeholders include the President, the Vice-President, the Speaker of Parliament, the Chief Justice, and the Justices of the Supreme Court.
The rest are Members of Parliament (MPs), Ministers of State, political appointees, and public servants with salaries charged to the Consolidated Fund but enjoying special constitutional privileges.
