Former Assembly Member for Kpaguri Electoral Area, Naa Iddirisu Samsideen, has petitioned the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) to intervention in getting the Wa Municipal Assembly to pay the ex-gratia of members of the 8th Assembly.
In a letter dated June 15, 2021 and addressed to the Upper West Regional Directorate of the commission, Mr Samsideen stated that before the dissolution of the Assembly in October 2019, the Assembly had agreed to pay each Assembly member an amount of 3,000 cedis as ex-gratia being a reward for the services rendered for the past four years but the Assembly paid only 500 Ghana cedis.
He averred that the Local Governance Act (Act 936, 2016) requires Assemblies to pay ex-gratia from sources such as its internally generated fund.
He alleged that any time that money is organized for that purpose, the Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) would devise ways and means to spend the money leaving the Assembly men ex-gratia unpaid.
He accused the MCE of secretly paying some members of the Assembly in a discriminatory manner.
He narrated that when he followed up on the matter, the MCE told him to write to the Assembly but he declined to do so saying, it was alien.
He accused some officials of the Wa Municipal Assembly of verbally assaulting him anytime he made a move to follow up at the Assembly.
He therefore prayed the CHRAJ to intervene in getting the unpaid members of the 8th Assembly their entitlement as contained in the Local Governance Act (Act 936, 2016) and also stop the Wa Municipal Assembly from engaging in further discrimination in the payment of the ex-gratia.