MPs Angry With Mills

PRESIDENT ATTA Mills yesterday held a crisis meeting with the leadership of Parliament to tackle some serious issues including MPs� threat to boycott this year�s state-of-the-nation address, Daily Guide has learnt. President Mills, according to parliamentary sources, had summoned the meeting following a closed-door meeting by Members of Parliament in which the legislators had angrily expressed their displeasure about the way the president had handled issues pertaining to their conditions of service. The Globe newspaper on Tuesday quoted unnamed lawmakers as having threatened boycotting tomorrow�s state-of-the-nation address by President Mills. Agitations during the closed-door meeting by the MPs and their threat of boycotting the state-of-the-nation address were said to have significantly ruffled the President, leading to the marathon deliberations between him and the leadership of the House. The MPs were apparently fuming over what they described as President Mills�s lackadaisical attitude towards their conditions of service. They said the chief executive of the land had failed to act on the recommendations for their pay rise. The recommendations, contained in a report by a parliamentary committee chaired by John Tia, former Minister for Information, DAILY GUIDE learnt, were included in a final report submitted to President Mills last year by the Prof. Ewurama Addy Committee, which the president had formed a year earlier to review the conditions of service of public office holders under Article 71, including MPs, the Speaker of Parliament and the two deputy speakers. Implementation of the recommendations, the paper learnt, had delayed because President Mills had set up another sub-committee to further evaluate the Addy Committee�s report. An MP�s current salary, Daily Guide learnt, was about GH�3,000; though the specific figure was not immediately known since the legislators were all tight-lipped on the issue. However, a fuming MP told the paper, �We are waiting for the outcome of the meeting of our leadership and the president. If President Mills fails to act on our conditions of service immediately after the meeting, we determine the next line of action.� According to him, MPs� conditions of service had not improved in the past three years under the Mills administration. �My brother, we are all suffering under this administration. Even though we are called honourable MPs, we cannot make ends meet,� the MP told Daily Guide.