Government salary increases…

… uncaring “misstep”  – Rashleigh Jackson

Two former Government Ministers under the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) and People’s National Congress (PNC) Administrations have berated the current A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance for Change (APNU/AFC) Administration for its decision to massively increase the pay of its Ministers after just being in office for four months.

Former Minister of Agriculture Dr Leslie Ramsammy voicing his concern over the APNU/AFC decision to raise the Ministers salaries said:  ‘If one thing has become clear to everyone, including diehard supporters of APNU/AFC, it is that APNU/AFC is nauseatingly arrogant.

Former Foreign Affairs Minister Rashleigh Jackson

Former Agriculture Minister, Dr Leslie Ramsammy

Their arrogance knows no limit and it is suffocating the development of our country. It brings back bad memories of the People’s National Congress (PNC) in Government between 1964 and 1992.”

These actions by the Administration who are only six months in office have been seen by critics as a certain abuse of power and betrayal of its supporters.

Ramsammy posited: “The recent salary increase for Cabinet members and the huge salary for advisors, together with the benefits associated with these jobs, including large pensions, is an example of the limitless arrogance of APNU/AFC.

“APNU/AFC is led by people who made themselves righteous by denouncing the salaries and benefits of Cabinet Members of the PPP/C Government. Others vowed that if people put them in Government, they will cut the salaries”.

On the campaign trail APNU/AFC accused the PPP/C of wanting to live “Cadillac lifestyles in a donkey cart economy” yet on entry to office they have been portrayed to be living the most lavish lifestyles.

Prime Minister Mosses Nagamootoo is ensuring that for the next five years he will be enjoying quite a sybaritic lifestyle.

When only four month in office a $22 million customized luxury Land Cruiser was added to his existing fleet of 22 vehicles, that was just the tip of an iceberg of extravagant expenditures in his personal life. Thus far Nagamootoo has cashed in on hefty amounts for the repairs to the bridge and road to his private residence, repairs to the official Prime Minister’s residence and the Office of the Prime Minister.

Former Minister Ramsammy further stated: “They have given themselves astronomical pay increases and they have not yet completed six months in office.

Nevermind the unbelievable salaries of the President, Prime Minister, Attorney General, the Vice-Presidents and senior ministers, even more insulting to our people are the salaries of the Junior Ministers who will earn more than the President of Venezuela, the Prime Minister of India and many other heads of state around the world”.

Minister of Governance Raphael Trotman has recently been reported as saying “trust us” on the issue of the megasalary increases for Ministers as he confirmed it was a Cabinet decision. Minister of State Joseph Harmon was the first to say that the Government has no apologies for the salary increases even though public servants were given 5% for half of the year.

The two-time Minister of Heath added that “in the midst of a public outcry about the astronomical pay increases they have given themselves and in the process begin a public raping of the treasury, the Finance Minister has unambiguously chastised those of us who have publicly objected that the increases they have filled their pockets with by declaring that the increases are irreversible – there will be no change and we need to consider ourselves fortunate that they did not take the even larger increase” .

“I want one of them in APNU/AFC to provide just one iota of evidence that they told people that should they win they will increase the very salaries and benefits they described then as a burden on the nation, unreasonably high and among the highest in the world.

I dare any of them to give me an indication that they did tell people that one of the reasons they wanted to become the Government and one of their priorities will be to increase their salaries” he added.

In a multitude of public meetings, rallies, in innumerable TV and radio talk-shows, and newspaper articles that said they will on day 1 in Government increase public servants’ salaries by 20%. Yet six months later their loyal supporters are left to face the brunt.

A recent interview conducted by Guyana Times with several persons in the city, showed that the economy is suffering and some linked it to starting after the May 11 polls. Even supporters of the current Administration are outraged, saying that is far too soon for such an increase and that they have forsaken the public servants while they become “fat cats”.

“The truth is that APNU/AFC has no care for the families who need the $10,000 per child for school; for the elderly whose old age pension is a life-line; for the Amerindian youth who want to make a decent living; for the professionals who want to serve. They have no care for those who suffer from escalating crime and they could not care less that the economy is plummeting like a spaceship on its way back to earth” Ramsammy concluded.

Jackson’s Take Meanwhile, Former Foreign Affairs Minister Rashleigh Jackson is begging the question as to whether ministers will now be able to afford to pay their utility bills given the increase in their remuneration packages.

During the Budget presentation in August, it was announced that subsidies for pensioners’ utility services would be withdrawn. In his explanation for this move by the David Granger-led Administration, Finance Minister Winston Jordon stated that 42,397 beneficiaries of Old Age Pension will now equally benefit from a monthly pension of $17,000, which is a 30% increase on the previous amount of $13,125.

He had also stated that discriminatory practices must end, and further explained that, at the time, only 30% of pensioners benefit from the electricity subsidy, since it requires either proof of ownership of property or registered tenancy of property, and in the provision of the subsidy for water services, only 62 per cent of registered pensioners benefitted, with more than 16,000 pensioners excluded.

Former Minister Rashleigh Jackson, in an editorial letter in another section of the media stated: “Now that Ministers have increased their salaries, will they now be in a position to pay their electricity bills? They did after all withdraw the electricity subsidy from pensioners when the latter were ‘rewarded’ with a ‘raise’, notwithstanding this recent step (the salary increase) or is it a misstep?”

This recent move by Government has left many outraged as the salaries of its Cabinet members has been increased by over $266, 119, 248 even in the face of widespread condemnation and concern by the public and other stakeholders.

Former Ministers, members of the Opposition and the general public have all taken to various outlets to voice their concerns.