Politics of Saturday, 7 February 2015

Source: tv3network.com

Ex-gratia for district assembly members

Minister of Local Government and Rural Development Julius Debrah has hinted that citizens who serve in local assemblies will receive end-of-service benefits.

According to him, the Ministry is in talks with the Ministry of Finance to get Cabinet's approval for the deal for all who serve as assembly members.

Mr Debrah revealed this in an interview with TV3’s Daniel Lartey on Friday, February 6.

He said already guidelines as to how to generate funds for the disbursement have been agreed upon.

“We have decided to issue out the final directive so that all the assembly members will get something,” he said.

Most assembly members may end their terms after March 3, when fresh elections are scheduled to held.

According to Mr Debrah, if guidelines are not put in place, some assemblies may overpay ex-members “and some of them out of several reasons could also underpay themselves”.

“So, we came out with a guideline which is an expression of the percentage of the internally generated funds of each assembly and we sent it to the Finance Minister for his comments and commendations which have been done.”

He said the ex-gratia, as many refer to it, will be a token of gratitude to outgoing assembly members.