President, Ministers not paid ex gratia — Ayariga

President John Dramani Mahama, the Ministers and Deputy Ministers have not been paid their ex gratia, the Ministry of Information and Media Relations has said.

It explained that contrary to speculations by some media houses that officials of the previous National Democratic Congress administration had received ex gratia, the President John Mahama, ministers and their deputies  were yet to be paid their end-of-service benefits.

According to the statement: “His Excellency the President and all Ministers and Deputy Ministers of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) who served in various ministerial and deputy ministerial positions, including presidential staffers, from 7th January 2009 to 6th January 2013 have not been paid their ex gratia for that period”.

“The payment of ex gratia, so far, only applies to members of the legislature,” the statement, signed by the sector Minister, Mahama Ayariga, added.

It described as untrue “the allegation that members of the political elite had paid themselves lump sum ex gratia awards and, yet,  are asking other public servants to accept instalment payments for arrears of their 2012 allowances.”

“Ministers and Deputy Ministers may only receive their ex gratia when the concerns of  non-Article 71 office holders’ have been equally attended to,” the statement concluded.