Georgetown: The A Partnership for National Unity/ Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) administration, despite having protested the “enormous” and “unreasonable” salary of previous government officials, is now about to announce massive salary increases for government officials.
Finance Minister Winston Jordan confirmed such as has stated that the matter is currently under consideration by the administration and the increase also extends to Members of Parliament (MPs) and basically all individuals who have a role in the House of Assembly. “The increase in Ministers salary is under consideration. All people that concern the House of Assembly, so that will include Chief Whip, the Opposition, Ministers, and Vice Presidents and so on,” he said.
The increase would see the Prime Minister and First Vice President Moses Nagamootoo earning some $1.7M monthly an increase of over $200,000 monthly plus vacation benefits and perks that total more than another $500,000.The three other Vice Presidents – positions not existing under the previous administration – Sydney Alicock, Carl Greenidge, and Khemraj Ramjattan will earn some $1.3M more than double the $579,000 they would have earned as ministers. The vacations and other benefits are also one $500,000.
The fifteen Senior Ministers will earn now earn $1M -an increase of over $400,000 or 74% monthly. The 12 Junior Ministers will each earn $700,000 monthly and like senior Ministers will be entitled to the $500,000 benefits. Therefore all the ministers- all 27 of them will also receive a duty allowance, an entertainment allowance, $45,000, housing allowance; chauffeur allowance of over $100,000 and annual vacation allowance of $420,000.The APNU and AFC, when in Opposition, had vigorously spoken out against the “abuse” of taxpayers’ money to fill the pockets of the “greedy” government officials and Carl Greenidge then shadow finance minister had written a letter in the Stabroek News just before the elections, complaining about the “lifestyle” of PPP/C ministers. He complained, “ PPP ministers have always paid themselves higher salaries than existed prior to their assumption of office…By 2014 the Minister of Finance was receiving $579,951,and today the PPP ministers’ vacation allowance at $420,000 is ten times the minimum wage.”
However, when it assumed office Finance Minister, Winston Jordan had said that the new government was looking to increase public servants’ salaries by 10% who had also said that the administration also has to work on tempering expectations. Jordan said while it sounds good to have a 10% payout, it makes no sense if you have to spend more and “end up in a deeper hole.” He had said that although the figure is not definitive, he was working with his staff to come up with scenarios and costs for the achievement of the coalition’s 100-day plan. Jordan had said that people had the notion that whenever there is talk of an increase, “you have to find the money from doing something that will cost an increase in maybe inflation but no, it doesn’t have to be that all the way. There is a concept called reallocation of resources.” Former Minister of Tourism Ali, commented, “it is clear that the APNU-AFc government intends to ‘reallocate’ the country’s resources into the pockets of their bloated Ministerial portfolios. Even while stiffing the ordinary wage earners.”
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