Former President John Agyekum Kufuor has said criticisms against former Cocobod CEO Dr Stephen Opuni for taking a gross salary of GHS75,000 during his tenure of office may be premature.
According to him, the salary must first be probed to ascertain whether Dr Opuni deserved it or not before such criticisms are hurled at him.
“Corruption is high in the country because employers cheat employees in Ghana, so my point is that the fat salary given to someone should not be an issue. For now, let’s investigate those issues to find out if the nation benefited from them or not. Then we can also find out if the salary was realistic or not, we should not jump to conclusions without proper investigations,” Mr Kufuor told Accra-based Top FM on Wednesday, 29 March.
This follows comments by the new chairman of the board of Cocobod, Mr Hackman Owusu-Agyeman that the amount was “unthinkable”.
“For me, it is absolutely unthinkable that the gross salary of the Chief Executive Officer should be in the neighbourhood of GHS 70,000 to GHS 75,000 a month, and the net is about GHS 55, 000 to GHS 57,000 a month. If you even discount this by 50 per cent, it would still be higher than anybody under Article 71 of the constitution,” he told Accra-based Citi FM.
Mr Owusu-Agyeman bemoaned that even after a cut in salaries of the top management of COCOBOD, they will still earn more than the highest paid Article 71 office holder.
He wondered why cocoa farmers were not benefitting from the proceeds of their work but managers were rather enriching themselves with the sweat of the farmers.
Mr Owusu-Agyeman has, therefore, hinted at a possible slash of the amount by half.
Source: classfmonline.com
Disclaimer: Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. |
no work will opuni do to justify this amount as salary does he no how to grow cocoa , the cocoa farmers are living in poverty and you want to defend this greedy bastard. Please JAK dont let us talk to you any how , you contributed to our suffering today since you wish Nana never become president , thank God He has heard our prayers allow Nana to correct the wrong you did during your tenure. Nana is like you he will fix the economy by not awarding him self of gold medal
Please relax ok.......that is exactly what the Ghanaian is good at!! They read but have no understanding..... For lack of knowledge Ghanaians perish. The man is coming from an angle but we are quick to "jab" him without appreciating exactly what he is driving at!!! Someone said "we are all sacrificing"....you have the opportunity to move on to a place where you would have to sacrifice!!!!!
I'm disappointed about the comments made so far. With due respect you should read over again and give a fair and objectives assessment.
He the formal president brought back corruption to ghana after Rawlings. He gave birth to the greedy bastards of the NDC. Now listen to what he is saying.
I wish someone could tell former president JAK to keep mute!! GHC 75,000 is outrageous, how can a poor country like Ghana pay a single individual GHC 75,000 a mont? THere is no justification to this mess. That amount of money warrants higher standards, not corruption and mediocre performance.
What about the cocoa farmers who toil on the farms?
We all know JAK. He is always for di di waawaa
Eii JAK, even in your old age you still condone such things. Most workers in Ghana deserve more than what they are paid but we all sacrifice because the state can't shoulder allvour demands. Why should Opuni be given that amount just because he deserve it. Do you even think about the nation Ghana JAK, U and Mahama have milked this country for too long. Allow Nana to reverse these corruptible practices that u superintendent over. Shame on u old man.