Tax president, no MP ministers, cap MPs at 277 – 5 top recommendations of Constitution Review body

The committee led by lawyer Clare Kasser-Tee, recommended among others that the president must pay taxes, because doing so would reflect the principle of equality before the law and align with the rule of law.

The committee was established by Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, to review the 2011 report of the Constitution Review Commission.

Excerpts of their recommendations as relates to the presidency and parliament include the following:

1. They recommended that Article 68 (5), which exempts the president from the payment of income tax, should be amended.

The Committee suggests that the president should pay taxes on his salary and emoluments as an example to the rest of the citizenry.

Amending this provision will necessitate the necessary consequential amendments in the country’s income tax law.

2. It recommended that number of ministers be capped at 25. Ghana has recently gone as far up as 110 under President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo with main candidates in the 2024 election promising to slash the figure by more than half.

Former president John Mahama has proposed 60 with Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia promising to run his government with 50 ministers.

3. The Committee also recommends that the Deputy Minister positions should be scrapped.

4. Still allied to ministerial slots, the Committee recommended that ministers should not be Members of Parliament. The current constitution mandates that majority of ministers must be lawmakers.

5. The report recommended that the size of Parliament be capped at 277.

The proposed amendment to Article 93 of the Constitution reads: “There shall be a Parliament of Ghana which shall consist of not more than two hundred and seventy-seven elected members.”

These recommendations were presented to Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, on June 13, 2024, for preliminary suggestions or firm resolve for the review of the 1992 Constitution.

The event, which was held on the theme “Building consensus and promoting ownership for the review of the Constitution”, was organised by the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs.

The committee’s mandate included reviewing submissions, proposals, and reports from various constitutional review platforms such as the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), University of Ghana Law School, University of Professional Studies (UPSA), and Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA).

Additionally, the committee is tasked with making recommendations to the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs and its partners and collaborators, including the National Commission on Civic Education (NCCE), Africa Centre for Economic Transformation (ACET), Centre for Democratic Development (CDD), Institute of Democratic and Economic Governance (IDEG), and the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC), among others.