Auntie Becky pays back 899k ‘allawa’ with CBG cheque

First Lady Rebecca Akufo-Addo has refunded an amount of GHS899,097.84 as allowance paid to her from 7 January 2017 to date back to the state.

The First Lady issued a Consolidated Bank Ghana Limited cheque number 000002 for the said amount to the office of the Chief of Staff today, Tuesday, 13 July 2021.

This is in fulfillment of a promise by the First Lady to refund the money after she received public backlash following parliamentary and presidential approval of the Prof Ntiamoa-Baidu committee’s recommendation for her and the wife of the Vice President to be paid salaries equivalent to that of cabinet ministers.

She has also reiterated her earlier stance to decline any allowances to be paid to her in future.

Background

Ghana’s First Lady, Mrs Rebecca Akufo-Addo, according to statement from her office dated Monday, 12 July 2021 and signed by Korkor Bleboo, Director of Communications at the Office of the First Lady, has “decided not to accept any monies that have been allocated to be paid to her pursuant to the recommendations of the Ntiamoa-Baidu committee, as approved by Parliament”.

“She is doing this as a purely personal decision, without prejudice to the rights of others, and not to undermine the propriety of the process undertaken by Parliament”, the statement said.

Apart from that, the statement also announced that: “The First Lady, in consultation with the President of the Republic, has decided to refund all the monies paid to her as allowances from the date of the President’s assumption of office, i.e., from January 2017 to date, amounting to GHS899,097.84.”

The statement said Mrs. Akufo-Addo did not request to be paid any allowance, adding: “She only received that which existed and attached to her status, albeit informally.”

Her decision, according to the statement, is also borne out of the public outrage and negative commentary about the recommendations, which, in her opinion, seek “to portray her as a venal, self-seeking and self-centred woman, who does not care about the plight of the ordinary Ghanaian. –classfmonline