Chairman of Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD), Hackman Owusu-Agyemang, has said criticisms levelled against him following his public announcement of the salary of the state body’s immediate past Chief Executive Officer, Dr Stephen Opuni, is unfair.
According to him, the salaries of Article 71 office holders, including that of the COCOBDO CEO, the president and all his ministers, Members of Parliament, and others are already in the public domain, therefore, it was not out of place for him to have publicly indicated how much Dr Opuni was earning as salary.
Mr Owusu-Agyemang, had said the GHS75,000 salary of Dr Opuni was “unthinkable” and the new board would review it.
“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 GHS57,000 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.
He wondered why cocoa farmers were not benefitting from the proceeds of their work but managers were rather enriching themselves with the sweat of farmers.
But in a subsequent interview with Chief Jerry Forson, host of Ghana Yensom, on Accra100.5FM on Wednesday 29 March, Mr Owusu-Agyemang said he had received criticism from a section of the Ghanaian public for putting out somebody’s salary, but the flak against him was not fair.
“People called me asking me why I put somebody’s salary in the public domain but I explained that even the salary of the president is in the public domain. Everybody knows how much Article 71 holders are taking as salaries. How much John Mahama, Kufuor, and the rest took as salaries are all in the public domain. These are matters of public record and so it is no issue to attract the criticisms,” he said.
Source: Classfmonline
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Your comment is rather the one which sound childish, someone is milking us and u expect them to call him quietly and ask him or the big men alone should talk quietly on it. It is our money and any professional person wil let us know what is going on in the various sectors so keep mute if u get nothing sensible to say. You comments sounds just like ur name
Mr Hackman God bless u n grant u heavenly favour for bringing out da truth and to opuni God's unforgivable wrath b upon u all da days of yr life n may u never know peace daaah in yr life n yr generations to come
can u kindly make available the salary and bonuses of the BoD and the Chairman too
Mr. Owusu- Agyemang, you have acted unprofessionally and childishly. Sorry you have hit below the belt and need to resign. Poor state-man.
At times it is painful to be a Ghanaian owing to the bad deeds of some of our leaders. 'OPUNI'and co have really disturbed Ghana! Real Cocoa Farmers in our villages are suffering, COCOA CLINIC in located in Accra and those it was named after have no access to that facility. At the end of the year, people gather to choose a BEST FARMER and given a token. Teachers have nowhere to sleep,some police men stand in the 'hot' sun to perform their duties. Go to the hospitals, talk about NHIS, the medicine the poor can buy is what they supply, the expensive ones, "NHIS does not cover." Jesus Christ! A whole coconut plantation owned by my late father was pulled down in the name of OIL EXPLORATION. I don't even remember whether or not he/they were compensated (and if so, how much were they paid? Then THE OPUNIS keep on milking us! In fact, it is good God in His own wisdom allowed death to cover all, else, some people will always have their way and push death to the poor. "MAHAMA TOA SO! MAHAMA TOA SO!" is that what they wanted to "Continue?" May the good Lord have Mercy on THE POOR IN GHANA!
Those attacking this man are those who will perish for lack of knowledge. The truth always hurt so keep letting us know what is going on in the various sectors cos opuni has really milked us to the worse, even the president and his ministers are not paid that much and i wonder the work he was doing, those doing the dirty job were rather taking peanuts, hmmmmm God should vindicate us from such people
$18000 a month this is ridiculous my God. Sometimes I think the leaders are kind of insensitive
Ghana is in serious crisis! Unfortunately those greedy bustards who are criticizing mr Hackman r eyeing such positions to milk the state.we know the salaries of article 71 holders,doctors,nurses and many key groups of our economy.why can't we know the salaries of others.we won't sit down and watch these greed to fester any longer.we will rise up and make Ghana work again.
Did those Chief Executive Officers help Nkrumah to attain independence for Ghana? Thank God Opuni is already in trouble. Ah! How could the so called educated be so wicked?
opuni is a wicked man i will say. he is a bigger part of all the hardship in the country.God will judge him accordingly.