(Jamaica Gleaner) Flip-flopping on her previous position on big government while she was in Opposition, Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller has named a 28-member executive that will cost taxpayers close to J$200 million per annum, at current rates, in salaries and allowances.
According to data gleaned from a Gordon House document detailing the salaries, allowances, and reimbursable expenses payable to members of parliament (MPs) and the political directorate, the 20 members of the Cabinet will pocket J$134.5 million per annum while the eight ministers of state will collectively bank J$47.01 million.
When the salaries and allowances payable to the slate of junior ministers are added to what is being paid to the members of the Cabinet, the total executive pay package balloons to J$181.5 million. This does not include the salary of the attorney general, a post previously tied to that of the minister of justice.
After naming her 18-member shadow Cabinet in May last year, Simpson Miller said if she were in government, the number would not be that high.
“I did not announce an 18-member Cabinet. I’m not the Government,” she said when asked if that would be the size of her Cabinet.
She continued: “You would not have 18 … I would not be giving the country a breakfront,” she quipped.
Less than a year later, Simpson Miller has unveiled a Cabinet that is bigger than her slate of shadow spokespersons.
Critics have advanced that if Golding’s 19-member Cabinet was too big, then Simpson Miller’s ‘breakfront’ can’t go through the front door.
While in Opposition, the People’s National Party (PNP) president was strident as she castigated then prime minister, Bruce Golding, for naming a 19-member Cabinet. She labelled Golding’s Cabinet a breakfront and pointed out that it was one of the largest in the history of the country.
But on Friday, Simpson Miller, now in the high seat of government after the PNP’s 42 to 21 seat victory over the JLP in the late December polls, did one better than Golding.
