He said the apology is warranted thanks to the erroneous statement made by the General Secretary of the Congress that salaries have been paid to the first and second ladies.
In a post on Facebook, Mr. Arhin flatly denied the claim and said no monies as such have been paid.
Mr. Arhin, who took issue with the TUC’s Secretary-General statement, said: “Clearly he was wrong, as no such ‘salary arrears have been paid.”
“Can he, therefore, do the needful and apologise to the First and Second Ladies for this false statement??” Mr. Arhin wrote.
The TUC in a statement dated July 11, 2021, and signed by its Secretary-General, Yaw Baah, among other things claimed that “Salary arrears dated back to January 2017 have since been paid to the wives of President Akufo-Addo and Vice President Bawumia, in accordance with the [Ntiamoa-Baidu] Committee’s recommendation which was approved by NDC and NPP Members of Parliament in January, 2021.”
“Therefore, the Trades Union Congress cannot support the payment of salaries to the spouses of presidents and vice presidents even if the Ntiamoa-Baidu’s Committee recommended the payment of such salaries. It is simply not right for anyone who has not been officially assigned duties and responsibilities in the public service to receive monthly salaries. The Committee probably sought to regularize the payment of allowances which were being paid already. But you cannot regularize the payment of allowances which has no legal basis."
The spouses of presidents and vice presidents are not specified under Article 71 of the Constitution of Ghana, the TUC added.
Mrs. Rebecca Akufo-Addo and Samira Bawumia have subsequently rejected the offer of a salary and have returned to the state allowances paid to them since 2018.