The Ntiamoa-Baidu Committee that recommended the formalisation of monthly salaries and allowances for spouses of Presidents and Vice Presidents also included the proposal for a confounding auto loan scheme.
Under this scheme, the State would facilitate a loan not exceeding $80,000 but the State would, in turn, absorb 60% of this loan.
The State would also take responsibility for all the interests on the loan.
 Accounting Professor and a US-based Ghanaian legal practitioner, Prof Stephen Kweku Asare, said this means that the State would borrow $80,000 at the market rate of interest and swap the $80,000 with the beneficiaries for a fixed sum of $32,000, spread over four years.
Commenting on this aspect of the Ntiamoa-Baidu Committee report, Prof Asare, known popularly as Kweku Azar, said it seems to him that the $80,000 loan has even been increased to $100,000 by the approving authorities.
“It is not immediately known whether the State is taking responsibility for 60% or have volunteered to pay an even higher share.
“But assuming the State retains its 60% responsibility, it means borrowing $100,000 at the market rate of interest and swapping it for a $40,000 payment spread over 4 years.
According to the Accounting Professor, this arrangement cannot be accurately described as a loan.
“Government gives the beneficiaries $27,500,000 (i.e., $100,000 * 275) and the beneficiaries pay government $11,000,000 ($40,000 * 275) over 45 months. The difference of $16,500,000 plus the interest of $4,561,666 are non-taxable wealth transfer from government to the beneficiaries.
“You cannot give someone $100,000 plus interests and ask that they give you $40,000 over 4 years and call that a loan. Plainly, you are giving the person a non-taxable gift of $60,000 plus interest structured to disguise its substance.
“The same ‘loan’ facility is also extended to the 31 members of the Council of State to allow them to perform their part-time advisory services. Here, the State borrows $3,500,000 for the purchase of 31 cars on the same terms as earlier described. Put together, the State borrows $31,500,000 at 8.5% interest just so it can make a tax free transfer in excess of $19,000,000 to only 306 (275 + 31) beneficiaries,†he wrote in a Facebook post.
Ordinary and prominent Ghanaians alike have expressed shock at the news that the last Parliament approved the controversial recommendations of the 2019 Emoluments Committee chaired by Professor Yaa Ntiamoa-Baidu.
The aspect of the recommendation that seems to have elicited the most controversy is the monthly salary of GH¢21,000 and allowance of GH¢87,000 each for the current First Lady, Rebecca Akufo-Addo and the Vice President’s wife, Samira Bawumia.