- 134 Former MMDCEs Demand Unpaid Terminal Benefits from Finance Ministry
A group of 134 former Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives who served during the first term of former President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has petitioned Finance Minister Dr Cassiel Ato Forson for payment of terminal benefits they say have remained outstanding since they left office in 2021.
The former officials say their tenure was extended into the opening months of Akufo-Addo’s second term while the government completed the process of nominating new MMDCEs.
Their petition is being led by Leo-Nelson Adzidogah, former Municipal Chief Executive for Akatsi South.
According to the petition, first-term MMDCEs were instructed to remain at post after January 2021 pending the appointment of their successors.
When new nominations were made in October 2021, 134 of the existing chief executives were not renominated and subsequently left office.
The affected former officials contend that although they served from January through October 2021, terminal benefits relating to that period have still not been paid.
Mr Adzidogah said the group initially expected the outstanding payments to be settled alongside benefits due officials who subsequently completed the second Akufo-Addo term.
They were therefore surprised, he said, when their successors received terminal benefits while their own claims remained unresolved.
The petition argues that colleagues who were renominated in 2021 were also paid for the January-to-October period during which both sets of officials were serving concurrently.
“It is therefore unfair to leave us out while our colleagues who worked with us during the said period were paid,” the petition states.
The former MMDCEs argue that their departure from office before the end of the second Akufo-Addo term should not invalidate benefits they say accrued from service already rendered.
They describe the non-payment as an oversight and are asking the Finance Minister to review the matter and authorise settlement.
The claim is not new. Mr Adzidogah had raised concerns over outstanding end-of-service benefits as far back as 2024, when he appealed for intervention on behalf of former MMDCEs, with reports at the time indicating that each affected official believed more than GH¢100,000 was due under the terms of their appointments.
Further petitions were submitted to the Mahama administration in late 2025 and February 2026 as the former officials continued to seek resolution.
The latest petition places the matter directly before Dr Forson and asks the Ministry of Finance to consider what the former officials describe as an outstanding obligation arising from their public service.
“We humbly believe that our exit from office during and before the end of the second term should not be used to deny us of our benefits,” the group said. Copies of the petition were also sent to senior officials at the Finance Ministry.
For the affected former MMDCEs, the central issue is equal treatment for officials who performed the same duties during the January-to-October 2021 transition period.
The petition does not specify the total fiscal cost of settling all 134 claims, and the Ministry of Finance’s response was not included in the material provided.
The renewed demand nevertheless puts a long-running public-sector compensation dispute back before the government, nearly five years after the officials left office.
