<<Print>>

January 2014 will experience the full implementation of 10 percent pay cut from President Mahama, his Vice President, and the ministers and appointees� salaries to help establish CHIPS Compounds in the rural areas. But this austere initiative of the President has been interpreted by the National Youth Organizer of the Progressive People�s Party (PPP), Divine Nkrumah, as a breeding ground for corruption to increase in the public sector. Finance Minister Seth Terkper made the announcement of the 10% pay cut in the salaries of all members of the Executive arm of Government, including the President and his Vice, when he presented the 2014 budget in Parliament a few weeks ago. Cumulatively, the austerity measure which has been described as a PR gimmick by the main opposition NPP will accrue about Ghc800,000 per month beginning from January 2014, according to Seth Terkper. President Mahama, last Saturday, affirmed that the amount will go into building Community-Based Health Planning and Services (CHIPS) compounds to support mainstream health delivery in the country. �It is our plan to complete another 1,600 units of CHIPS compounds by the year 2016. This falls in line with a decision taken by myself and my Cabinet and other political appointees to voluntarily donate 10% of our salaries to go into the construction of special purpose CHIPS compounds dedicated to maternal and neo-natal health�, the President told an audience when he launched in Accra, a Campaign for Accelerated Maternal Mortality in Africa (CARMMA). Reacting to the President�s philosophy, the PPP activist averred on Hot Fm that the 10% pay cut declared by President Mahama is going to be a recipe for breeding corruption in the country. ��..we already know what has been happening in the country, when ministers and appointees� salaries have not been reduced by any percent�but now that the President has declared 10 percent pay cut, this is going to be recipe for breeding corruption in the country�, he asserted. He added that the pay cut will rather intensify the level at which commissions and corruption intensifies in every contract awarded by government appointees. He however posited that neither the 2% pay cut of public sector employees� salaries nor 10% pay cut of the members of Executive Arm of government is good enough to accelerate development. ��the 2 percent and the 10 percent idea shows President Mahama has goofed; he should come up with another plan which will lessen the spate of increasing corruption we are already dealing with in the country,� he pontificated.