‘We Inherited Akufo-Addo’s Salary Bill’
By Gifty Boateng
The war of words over the presidency’s wage bill has exploded. The Mahama government on Monday dismissed as “ignorant propaganda” claims that the President has overseen a massive increase in compensation at Jubilee House despite slashing the number of political appointees.
At a fiery press briefing, Government Spokesperson Felix Kwakye Ofosu dropped a bombshell: President Mahama has not added one cedi to the salaries of presidential staffers. The pay scales, he said, were inherited from the previous NPP administration.
“President Mahama has not set up a committee to determine emoluments for Article 71 officeholders,” Kwakye Ofosu declared. “The salaries and conditions you see today were the terms documented under Akufo-Addo. The NPP propagandists making these false claims know this because they were beneficiaries of those arrangements.”
The controversy erupted after the government presented to Parliament a list of 808 persons working at the Presidency. Of these, only 233 are political appointees (presidential staffers) – a sharp reduction from the 357 political staffers under Akufo-Addo in 2023.
But the opposition NPP quickly pounced on the budget figures. While the number of appointees dropped, the Office of the President’s compensation is projected to more than double from ¢100 million in 2025 to ¢248 million in 2026.
Dennis Miracles Aboagye, a former presidential spokesperson, led the charge. “The current government that the minister told us has only 30 appointees turns out to have 808 of them,” he fumed. “Their cost is three times the cost of all previous governments. What a waste!”
PK Sarpong, another outspoken NPP figure, turned the knife on Kwakye Ofosu’s past statements. He reminded the minister that when the NPP was in power, the then opposition NDP had lumped all Jubilee House workers together as “presidential staffers” to inflate the numbers.
“Felix Kwakye Ofosu, you see your life?” Sarpong taunted. “Under Akufo-Addo, you said 1,000 people were working at the Presidency as presidential staffers. Today, you announce that 808 people work there but only 233 are presidential staffers. You are a dishonest character!”
Kwakye Ofosu, however, stood his ground. He invoked Article 71 of the Constitution, which requires a presidential committee to fix emoluments for top state officials – including ministers, presidential staffers, and other political appointees.
“For the avoidance of doubt, President Mahama has not set up any such committee,” he repeated. “So how can anyone claim he has increased salaries?”
The minister’s message was clear: the NPP is campaigning against a wage bill that its own government created.
President Mahama reduced political appointees from 357 to 233 – a cut of 124 positions. But the salary structure for those remaining is exactly what the Akufo-Addo administration left behind.
Whether the presidency’s total compensation bill has ballooned due to other factors (such as civil servant salaries or benefits) remains unclear. But the government insists that no political appointee has received a pay rise under Mahama.
For now, the NPP is crying hypocrisy. The government is crying amnesia.
As one political observer put it: “In Ghana’s budget wars, the past always comes back to haunt the present.”