Reply to "Govt proposes 10 percent pay hike for lowest paid workers; one percent for highest paid…"

- minimum wage public servants have taken home $235,980 more since May 2015
- Coalition Government working towards better salaries for public servants

GEORGETOWN, Guyana – The Department of Public Information provides the following comprehensive rebuttal to misinformation emanating from the opposition People’s Progressive Party. The latest installment has come via the PPP General Secretary, Mr. Clement Rohee.

1. The opposition-cuddling Guyana Times newspaper dutifully reported, in its Tuesday August 30th 2016 edition, “… Rohee noted that the 10 per cent increase was a betrayal of the Public Service and was not reflective of the 20 per cent increases promised by the coalition members on the campaign trail.”

Mr. Rohee’s attention is directed to page 25 of the APNU+AFC Coalition’s manifesto which states as follows:

“The APNU+AFC Coalition will: “…increase the salaries of all government workers, on a graduated basis, with the lowest paid receiving a 10% rise”.”

Mr. Rohee’s attention is further directed to page 81 of the 2015 budget presentation of the Minister of Finance, Mr. Winston Jordan.

Item 6.17 reads:

“Effective July 1, 2015 all other public servants will receive a 5 percent salary increase plus an additional $5,000 monthly. This, Mr. Speaker will allow for a greater increase in the lower income brackets. For example, a worker currently earning $50,000 will have a monthly increase of $7,500, or 15 percent; a person currently receiving a salary of $100,000 would get a 10 percent increase. Since the bulk of the public servants earn $100,000 and below, these are substantial increases, more than was promised to these categories of workers.”

Minister Jordan went on to explain, as outlined in the chart below (which is extracted from the budget presentation) that the salary increases provided for in the Coalition Government’s first budget was, in fact, significantly above what was promised in its manifesto and amounted to an historic increase of 26.4% for the lowest paid category of workers and 17.1% and 15% in the next bands.

In addition, in December of 2015 the Coalition Government made a one off payment of $50,000 to every public servant.

To place this in a comparative context, under the PPP, a public servant earning the PPP minimum wage of $39,540 for the second half of 2014 (July 1 to December 31) took home a total of $237,240.

Under the Coalition Government, for the corresponding six month period in 2015 (July 1, 2015 to December 31), the same employee took home $350,000 (representing $50,000 salary per month + $50,000 Christmas bonus in December).

Within the first 50 days in office, the Coalition Government put measures in place for the same worker to take home $112,760 more than they did under the PPP.

Further still under the Coalition Government the tax threshold has been increased and is now pegged at $55,000 per month.

Mr. Rohee’s attention is directed to page 73 of Minister Jordan’s 2016 budget presentation.

Item 6.13 reads:

“Mr. Speaker, I propose to amend the Income Tax Act to increase the income tax threshold to $660,000, from $600,000. With this measure, over 68,000 workers will be removed from the income tax roll, in addition to the fact that workers have an additional disposable income annually.”

The DPI implores Mr. Rohee not to ignore these facts and to eschew vacuous rhetoric and frantic politicking geared towards misleading the Guyanese public which is increasingly apathetic towards such hollow messaging.

Clarification of wage bill
2. Mr. Rohee was also reported as saying that “Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo (who) at the 2016 May Day Rally declared that Government had set aside $43.8 billion and $6.63 billion for INCREASED benefits and allowances in the 2016 Budget, for public servants”.

What Prime Minister Nagamootoo, in fact, said is, “(T)his year the Coalition set aside $43.8 billion for wages and salaries, as employment costs; and an additional $6.6 billion for benefits and allowances”.

The Prime Minister explained that the total employment bill stands at $50.4 Billion in the 2016 estimates and added that “any increase has to await the report of the Lutchman Commission and negotiations…”

The Coalition Government recognises that public servants deserve higher salaries to compensate for the many years they had been kept in bondage on what was described as ‘starvation wages’ under the Bharrat Jagdeo and Donald Ramotar regimes.

The Coalition Government, in 15 months in office, has had to stretch limited resources to conduct a concerted campaign in defence of Guyana’s territorial integrity, rebuild the public service, fix broken infrastructure, control a rebellious prison population, combat the ravages of El Nino, combat crime, fight and contain ZIKA, pay hefty judgment sums for cases lost or mishandled under the previous administration and to host local government elections which were denied under the PPP government for 22 years.

UNTOLD STORY – public servants have taken home $235,980 more
The untold story is that minimum wage public servants have taken home a total of $789,540 for the 15 months of the Coalition Government being in office.

Under the PPP they would have taken home $553,560 for the same period, a difference of $235,980.

Good faith
The Coalition Government has demonstrably acted in good faith with regard to increase in public servants’ salaries and remains committed to the goal of realising the good life for all.

The DPI appeals to the opposition PPP to act responsibly and honestly in the discourse of these and other matters.
-ENDS-

Minister Jordan’s budget presentation remains available for public scrutiny here:
http://finance.gov.gy/ima…/uploads/documents/budget_2015.pdf