For the second time in three days, the Office of the President (OP) has defended the pension President Bharrat Jagdeo will earn on demitting office, saying similar benefits were enjoyed by all former presidents, but PNCR Leader Robert Corbin says the OP statement is “untrue”.
OP last evening accused the Alliance For Change (AFC) of peddling “deliberate misinformation and inaccuracies” about the pension.
On Friday, the PPP had said it was not happy at the “lies” and “misrepresentations” on the matter and on Saturday OP, in a release, said the pension of President Jagdeo is established at seven-eighths of his salary and that remains unchanged.
In its second release on the subject, sent last evening, OP also criticized the media. OP said “the AFC and the media continue on the same vein by now pretending that their claim about the $3 million pension included the value of allowances and other benefits and to sustain their contention, these media “fanatics” have offered estimations of the cost of these benefits and, allowances, and not surprisingly come back to their discredited $3 million a month claim. What the AFC and the unrepentant media again failed to acknowledge is that the pension allowances and benefits enjoyed by presidents are subject to statutes and discretion,” OP said, adding that “it is the comparative analysis of the pension, statutory benefits and allowances that matter the most”.
OP said that previous presidents Arthur Chung, Forbes Burnham, Desmond Hoyte, Cheddi Jagan and Janet Jagan were all entitled to several benefits. According to the release, these benefits included “tax-free pension”; “payment of utilities”, “personal and household staff”; “payment of medical treatment”; “fulltime security at official place of residence”; “annual vacation allowance equivalent to cost of two first class-class return tickets” and “toll-free road transportation in Guyana”, which they all enjoyed.
“The AFC argument then about the exceptional package that President Jagdeo will enjoy is thus shown to be invalid, particularly when the statutes, custom and practice applicable to former presidents are examined,” OP said.
Contacted last evening, PNCR Leader Robert Corbin said that “it is untrue and very deceptive” for the government to say that all previous presidents enjoyed the benefits that Jagdeo will enjoy, especially since presidents Burnham and Cheddi Jagan both died in office while Hoyte never received a presidential pension. According to Corbin, Hoyte never received his pension since the government argued that after he demitted office he became opposition leader and was serving as a member of parliament. He said the only two presidents who would have received a pension were Arthur Chung and Janet Jagan. Corbin said while he could not say what benefits Janet Jagan received, he knew that Chung did not receive these benefits.
Corbin said the Former Presidents (Benefits and Other Facilities) Bill which was passed in the National Assembly and subsequently enacted by the President in 2009, “disregards all the logics of actuarial studies and how pension schemes are based”. He said that since independence laws have been in place which addressed such matters, noting that depending on one’s earnings public officials had to make contributory payments to a pension scheme. He said the maximum pension one could have earned is seven-eighths of the highest salary that person would have earned while serving in public office. Corbin noted that the law passed by this administration entitles the president to a salary that is seven-eighths of whatever the president of the day is earning. Corbin also said that the “additional perks associated with the pension” are unique to President Jagdeo, while specifically mentioning the free annual air travel and the acquisition and maintenance of vehicles.
The PPP, in a release on Friday, accused members and leaders of the AFC of “making false and libelous statements” aimed at the good reputation of the PPP and the government. Further, the PPP criticized the AFC for an advertisement it aired regarding the President’s pension benefits. The advertisement in question, Stabroek News was told, is a 10-second ad which says that the President will earn a pension of $3 million monthly, while ordinary citizens of pensionable age receive $7,500 per month.
After the bill was passed and enacted in 2009, Jagdeo fended off criticisms of the legislation, saying the benefits outlined had been enshrined in law to ensure transparency about the entitlements, almost all of which had been enjoyed by his predecessors. “Almost ninety-nine per cent of the provisions were already enjoyed by former presidents and this is what I have found hypocritical,” he said of the criticism of the act, adding later, “I don’t know if it’s excessive, but that was what was there all along.” He said late former presidents Desmond Hoyte and Janet Jagan benefited from similar concessions, by custom and practice.
The benefits and facilities provided for under the legislation include payment of utilities at the place of residence in Guyana, the services of personal and household staff as well as those of clerical and technical staff, if requested, full-time personal security and services of the Presidential Guard Service, the provision of motor vehicles owned and maintained by the state, toll free road transportation in Guyana, an annual vacation allowance equivalent to the cost of two first class return airfares provided on the same basis as that granted to serving members of the judiciary and a tax exemption status identical to that enjoyed by a serving president.
