2021
SUPREME COURT
CORAM
AI Generated Summary
The Supreme Court of Ghana, per Chief Justice Gertrude Sackey Torkornoo, resolved a constitutional challenge to the payment of salaries to Ghana’s First and Second Ladies. A Presidential Committee on Emoluments, chaired by Prof. Ntiamoah‑Baidu, recommended formalizing support to spouses of current and former Presidents and Vice Presidents as privileges of those offices, despite acknowledging no constitutional or legislative basis. Parliament later approved determinations that included paying benchmarked salaries to the First and Second Ladies. Acting under Articles 2(1) and 130(1), the action contested both the committee’s scope and Parliament’s approval. The Attorney‑General defended the payments on purposive constitutional grounds and as executive privileges. The Court held that committee recommendations are non‑binding and non‑justiciable, but Parliament’s approval of direct salaries for spouses contravened Article 71’s exclusionary framework. It declared the approval null and void, affirmed that First and Second Ladies are not Article 71 office holders, and declined to decide Article 108/178 issues for lack of evidence.
SACKEY TORKORNOO(CJ):
Introduction
Article 71 of the 1992 Constitution provides for the manner in which the emoluments of a specified group of public office holders shall be determined. It reads:
Determination of Certain Emoluments
71 (1) The salaries and allowances payable, and the facilities and privileges available, to—
(a) the Speaker and Deputy Speakers and members of Parliament; (b) the Chief Justice and the other Justices of the Superior Court of Judicature;
(c) the Auditor-General, the Chairman and Deputy Chairmen of the Electoral Commission, the Commissioner for Human Rights and Administrative Justice and his Deputies and the District Assemblies Common Fund Administrator;
(d) the Chairman, Vice-Chairman and the other members of— (i) a National Council for Higher Education howsoever described; (ii) the Public Services Commission;
(iii) the National Media Commission;
(iv) the Lands Commission; and
(v) the National Commission for Civic Education;
being expenditure charged on the Consolidated Fund, shall be determined by the President on the recommendations of a committee of not more than five persons
appointed by the President, acting in accordance with the advice of the Council of State.
(2) The salaries and allowances payable, and the facilities available, to the President, the Vice-President, the chairman and the other members of the Council of State; Ministers of State and Deputy Ministers, being expenditure charged on the Consolidated Fund, shall be determined by Parliament on the recommendations of the committee referred to in clause (1) of this article.
(3) For the purposes of this article, and except as otherwise provided in this Constitution, “salaries” includes allowances, facilities and privileges and retiring benefits or awards.
From the above, the process of determining the salaries, allowances, privileges and available facilities (emoluments) due to the public office holders specified in article 71 begins with the appointment of a committee of not more than five persons by the President, acting in accordance with the advice of the Council of State (hereafter referred to as the PCE or Presidential Committee on Emoluments). The PCE then executes the constitutional obligation of recommending the emoluments to be given the named public office holders under article 71.
In the case of the first group identified under article 71 (1) (a), the recommendations of the committee are made to the President, who ‘shall
determine’ what