Former Vice-President John Evans Atta Mills on Thursday expressed the readiness of former government officials to refund extra payments of ex-gratia awards if it is legally proved they were overpaid.

"We are ready to pay back every extra pesewa on our ex-gratia awards provided the widely reported error in the payments made to us are confirmed," he said.

"I will be the first to refund any extra money paid to me," Prof. Mills said while responding to questions at a heavily packed press conference organised by the NDC to respond to issues which have emerged since the New Patriotic Party (NPP) came to power.

He deplored media reports, which, he said, have created the "wrong impression" that after overseeing the termination of the End of Service Benefit (ESB) system, former officials of government have used the same system to take over 3.4 billion cedis from state coffers.

Recent statements by NPP government officials reported in the media say the ex-gratia awards, which have been erroneously termed ESB, were paid in excess of about 2.4 billion cedis.

Prof. Mills noted that there is legal basis for such payments to be made to former government officials, saying that they were their ex-gratia awards which is three to four months salary for every one year one served the country.

This, he said, is contained in the Greenstreet Report put together by a tripartite committee on which the Trades Union Congress was represented.

He said the report also determined the salary levels of government officials.

Prof. Mills said cabinet under the NDC government first approved the report. It was later approved by the second parliament of the Fourth Republic in which members of the NPP served.

"It surprises me that Parliament is so silent about the issue as though they knew nothing about the Greenstreet report," he said.

Prof. Mills noted that the issue about the ex-gratia awards now is not whether it had a legal basis but whether or not there was an over-payment.

"I personally did not know my salary as a Vice-President so I cannot tell whether I have been overpaid or not," he said.

"I have detailed documentation on the ex-gratia awards to former state functionaries but I do not as yet have any pointing to the alleged over- payment."

He called on the transitional team to expedite action on the issue of the overpaid ex-gratia awards and rectify any anomaly.

Mr Victor Selormey, a former deputy minister of finance, said the NDC government did not decline to pay ESB as being reported in sections of the media.

"The ESB system was replaced with the pension scheme which was a better option for the survival of the economy. Before the termination date of the ESB, the NDC government paid all ESBs to deserving workers."

Mr Selormey explained that a tripartite committee set up to look into the effect of ESB on the economy recommended that the system was detrimental to inward investments and needed to be replaced by the pension scheme.

Mr. Kwame Peprah, former Minister of Finance, denied that the NDC government was about to opt for the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative.

He said when HIPC 1 was introduced by the IMF, Ghana did not qualify, adding "we qualified under the second initiative as the ratio was lowered by the IMF".

"We, however, wrote to the IMF to say that the conditions attached to the HIPC initiative were not in the interest of this country. The fact that IMF invited us to join HIPC does not mean we agreed to join."

Touching on the alleged mis-reporting of the state of the economy to the IMF for which the Fund is now demanding a refund of over 35 million dollars grant, Mr Peprah said the NDC government did no such thing.

He said the IMF had always challenged reports on Ghana's economy and the NDC government always argued with them and maintained its position.

"It is left to the NPP government to continue the legacy we have left and argue it out with the IMF rather than trying to criminalise the NDC in the name of transparency," he said.

The press conference was attended by all the top brass of the NDC, including present and past members of parliament, former ministers of state and party executives.

Prof. Mills, who was also the NDC flagbearer in the December 2000 elections, said the presence of top members of the party was to let the public know that none of them has fled the country as was being rumoured.