Calls by some critics for government to scrap the payment of ex-gratia until 2040, have been described as “childish” and “baseless” by Dr. George Domfe.
Dr. Domfe a Development Economist and Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Social Policy Studies at the University of Ghana, Legon, established that he had expected the critics to put out their research which informed them to make the call on government to suspend the payment of ex-gratia until 2040.
Speaking on Movement TV’s ‘B3 Kyere Mu‘ show with Gordon Asare-Bediako as host, the renowned economist disclosed that it breaks his heart that people who should know better are rather the ones misleading the public on the subject of ex-gratia payments.
He maintained that scraping the payment of ex-gratia wasn’t going to solve the economic problems of Ghana noting that “He says we should pay it in 2040 so the question is what has he seen in 2040…it came from his own imagination, he didn’t conduct any study because what he said is baseless. Because he is a professor, people listen to him and it will mislead policy.”
In breaking down the payment of ex-gratia made to Article 71 officeholders and how cancelling it would take Ghana nowhere, Dr. Domfe said “The last time ex-gratia was paid, the total was GHC207million and it is paid every four years so if you divide it by 4, technically we spend GHC52million on ex-gratia. So assuming your budget is GHC205billion and you stop paying ex-gratia, what have you achieved?”
He reiterated that Ghana’s economic problem isn’t tied to ex-gratia payment and highlighted that “Some people are misleading policy in this country and I want to take it from the angle of ex-gratia. Some people are making it look like it is the main problem of our economy….recently a university professor from Legon spoke on another radio station and said he is advising government to suspend payment of ex-gratia until 2024 because it will have negative effect on our fiscal policy. To me this was a childish talk coming from a professor of my university.”
Aside Prof. Bokpin, former President John Dramani Mahama has also been vocal in calling for the cancellation of ex-gratia.
However Mr. Mahama has faced severe backlash with his call as many have rather asked him to return all the ex-gratia payments he has received in his political life. The call for him to return his, has sadly fallen on death ears.