CJA wants review of retirement package

The Committee for Joint Action (CJA), a pressure group,has called on the Mills administration to review the retirement package for ex Presidents within the broad context of retiring benefits for all public officials, including Parliamentarians.
THE Committee will therefore embark on a demonstration to petition the President, Professor John Evans Atta Mills to review the current retirement package for the former President, Mr John Agyekum Kufour,and all public officials including parliamentarians.
The demonstration will take place on Tuesday February 3, 2009 in Accra, starting from the Kwame Nkrumah Circle, through some principal streets and finally present its petition to the President at the Castle, Osu.
Mr Kwesi Pratt Jnr, a leading member of the Committee at a press conference in Accra on Tuesday, said the Committee was outraged by the demands for the extremely lavish retiring awards for the former President and other public officials.
“Such benefits are not showered on ex-President even in the richest countries of the world. We are a highly indebted poor country and we, including our past presidents, should live within our means,” he stated and added that the former President, by accepting these recommendation, “does not project himself as a good role model for the people”.
He said the Committee believed that public office holders must rather serve the interest and meet the aspirations of the people, rather than pursuing their own interest.
According to him, the resources to be allocated to the former President as recommended by the Chinery-Hesse Committee, chaired by the former President’s own special advisor was simply too much.
“This creates the impression that public service has become a self-serving exercise designed to feather the nest of the elite rather than meet the needs and aspirations of the people,” he stated.
Mr Pratt said even the World Bank which had been one of the former President’s foremost supporters and sponsors, had come to accept that the current economic situation in Ghana was very precarious.
Mr Pratt recalled that more than a year after the celebration of the Ghana at 50, the former President’s government had not been able to account for the monies they claimed to have spent for the event.