TWO IN TUSSLE OVER GNA BOSS SALARY (P.55) 15-09-08

Story: Kofi Yeboah

THE National Media Commission (NMC) and the Auditor-General are embroiled in a power struggle over the salary of the General Manager of the Ghana News Agency (GNA).
This follows the controversy stirred by the Auditor-General, who challenged the authority of the NMC in fixing the GH¢8,050 monthly salary of the GNA boss without consulting the Presidency.
Whereas the NMC is questioning the mandate of the Auditor-General to make pronouncement on whether or not the commission consulted the Presidency before fixing the salary for the GNA boss, the Auditor-General, Mr Edward Dua Agyeman, insists he has such authority as the watchdog of the national kitty and is, therefore, asking the NMC to do the right thing.
“I have the right to comment on it and to safeguard the purse of the nation. Otherwise, I can also set a big salary for myself because I oversee the national purse. But it doesn’t work that way,” he told the Daily Graphic in an interview yesterday.
However, responding to correspondents from the Auditor-General on the matter, the NMC said in a letter dated September 10, 2008, that the issue, being a constitutional and legal matter, should be left to the commission and the Presidency or other constitutional entities with the mandate to resolve interpretative conflicts.
“Any attempt, therefore, to create a wedge between the National Media Commission and the Presidency would be vigorously resisted,” the commission stated in the letter signed by its chairman, Mr Paul Adu-Gyamfi.
Mr Agyeman, however, told the Daily Graphic that his actions were not intended to create a wedge between the NMC and the Office of the President, but to ensure that the proper thing was done as far as state money was concerned.
He said enquiries made at the Office of the President confirmed that the NMC did not consult the Presidency before fixing the GH¢8,050 salary of the GNA General Manager.
Mr Agyeman said if the NMC had consulted the Presidency before fixing the salary and the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning (MOFEP) had indicated its ability to pay the salary, he would not have raised any eyebrow.
Furthermore, he said, if the GNA was an income-generating institution whose salary was not charged on the Consolidated Fund, it could decide to fix the salary of the General Manager at any level and that would not pose any problem to him.
The NMC indicated in its letter that it was the right of the Office of the President, not the Auditor-General, to complain about the adequacy of consultations between the NMC and the Presidency in the appointment of Chief Executive Officers of the state-owned media.
“Your attempt to pronounce upon the procedures involved in the execution of the employment contract of the General Manager of the Ghana News Agency suffers from the same weakness of locus and mandate referred to above,” the NMC added.
However, Mr Agyeman insisted that so long as the GNA boss’ salary was charged to the Consolidated Fund, he had the right, as Auditor-General, to question the salary if it did not follow the right procedure, adding that even if the President was paid more than necessary, “I have the right to comment on it”.
Nana Appau Duah was appointed by the NMC as the General Manager of the GNA on October 1, 2006, per a letter dated September 18, 2006, having acted in that position previously.
However, on January 25, 2008, the NMC and the General Manager signed a service agreement that will keep Nana Appau Duah in employment for a six-year period, beginning October 1, 2006, without the option of renewal.
The service agreement set the salary of the General Manager at GH¢3,500 per month and a package of six monthly allowances, including responsibility - 50 per cent, risk - 10 per cent, entertainment - 10 per cent, general duty - 25 per cent, rent (accommodation) - 30 per cent, and Provident Fund - five per cent.
The salary (GH¢3,500) and allowances totalling 130 per cent of the basic salary or GH¢4,550, bring the total gross emolument to GH¢8,050 per month for the General Manager.
The amount seemed to have raised concerns at the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, whose Director of Budget, Mr Kwabena Adjei-Mensah, in April this year requested the Auditor-General to verify and advise on the computation of the salary arrears and other allowances due Nana Appau Duah.
Responding to that request, the Auditor-General observed that the Greenstreet Committee, which determined salaries and conditions of service of Article 71 office holders, fixed the salary of Cabinet Ministers at GH¢3,120 per month with effect from January 1, 2006, and that with the recent increases, the monthly gross salary was below GH¢4,000.
He, therefore, found it very difficult to come to terms with how the salary of the GNA General Manager could be far more than the salary of Cabinet Ministers.
Mr Agyeman also indicated that having observed that prior to his appointment as General Manager, Nana Appau Duah was a serving officer of the GNA, “I do not see the basis for the new contract which seems to exclude him out of the SSNIT Pension Scheme.”
He, therefore, advised the NMC to submit the award of contract and terms and conditions to the President for his input in accordance with Article 168 of the constitution.
The Auditor-General observed that despite the lack of consultation with the Presidency, the General Manager was paid the new salary between February and June 2008, resulting in the payment of GH¢33,200 being the difference between the old and new salary and allowances.
“I find the payment of GH¢33,200 to be improper because there is no evidence that the appointment, including the terms and conditions, and the duration of the contract, was made in consultation with the President as prescribed in Article 168 of the 1992 Constitution,” he noted.
Mr Agyeman further indicated that the GNA wrongly interpreted clause 8 of the employment contract based on which it computed for the General Manager GH¢7,166.25 being a 15-per cent increase in salary and allowances awarded to staff of the agency by the government effective January 1, 2008.
The Ministry of Finance subsequently withheld the payment of that increase in salary and allowance pending further investigations on his condition of service granted by the NMC.
That decision seemed unacceptable to the NMC, which, in its letter, consequently asked the Auditor-General “to take immediate steps to remove the unauthorised embargo you have placed on the salary of the General Manager of the Ghana News Agency as your act is ultra vires”.
Giving further explanation on the issue, the Auditor-General said the decision to stop the payment of the new salary and allowances to Nana Appau Duah was to allow for vetting of his salary.
He said the vetting would look at a number of issues, including the legality of the salary, computation, financial regulation and the labour law.