MPs deserve bigger salaries – Alban Bagbin defends

Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin has defended the emoluments of Members of Parliament (MPs), explaining that as elected representatives of the people, they meet numerous financial needs of their constituents that exhaust whatever money they receive as MPs.

The Speaker wondered why there is always public rejection and revulsion whenever MPs get an increment or improvement in the salaries they receive from the state. He was at a loss as to how people who got to MPs for all sorts of financial support can be furious whenever the same MPs get a raise in their incomes.

He noted that the financial strain that comes from being an elected representative of the people is one main reason why they must be paid salaries that are commensurate with their financial responsibilities.

For him, MPs deserve better emoluments.

He made the call in Takoradi during a Press Soirée to mark 30 years of Ghana’s uninterrupted Parliamentary Democracy.

“Whatever is given to the one you struggled to elect[MP], you are opposed to it. Even though every day you knock at his door to request money to pay school fees and hospital bills, to donate to churches, festivals and funerals, you hate to hear that his salary is being increased. There must be a problem!” Alban Bagbin lamented.

News about the salaries of MPs, especially the payment of ex gratia to them, is often met with outrage. But MPs have consistently advocated that they deserve more for the work they do and the financial pressure that comes with it