The announced increase in public servants’ wages is a temporary measure, according to Minister of State Joseph Harmon who has acknowledged that government did not consult with the workers’ union before the figures were included in the 2015 budget.
In his budget presentation, Minister of Finance Winston Jordan announced that public servants’ minimum salary will be $50, 000 per month and those earning above this will get 5% plus $5000.
Responding to the Guyana Public Service Union’s (GPSU) concerns about no collective bargaining, Harmon told reporters during his weekly post cabinet press briefing that Jordan had said that this increase is temporary and had not been subjected to the usual process of negotiations with the unions because of the time constraints in preparing the budget.
Asked why government had not backdated the increases to January, 2015 as opposed to July 1, 2015 Harmon said that this is among the many issues which can be addressed by the minister and which would come up during the budget debate.
“I can say to you as a general rule we felt that the people were bearing a heavy burden… and we intended to take off some of this weight. Even if we don’t take off all this year over time in our five year period up to 2020 we are going to lighten the load on the backs of the Guyanese people”, he said, while noting that what was presented was not a “gift” but what government felt Guyanese people were entitled to; the least that could have been done in such a short period of time. “We are going to be reviewing things after this budget because we go immediately into another budget cycle and we will deal with the other longer terms at that stage but right now it is about giving the Guyanese people a break; getting some of the load off their backs and basically finding more creative ways in which government can actually increase its revenue earning capacity”, he said adding that the minister in his presentation made mention of several of these revenue earning initiatives.
He said that very shortly a Commission of Inquiry headed by Professor Harold Lutchman will be appointed to look into the salaries and conditions of service of all those employed in the public sector. There will be two other commissioners who will be taking evidence from public servants and the general public, he said.
“You cannot expect to pay people peanuts and get the highest quality service…people must be properly trained, their conditions of work must be good and so you can get better production out of them”, he said.
Meanwhile in responding to the PPP’s claims that government has “duped” the population with the national budget, Harmon said that these will be matters which will be ventilated in the National Assembly during the budget debate.
Making it clear that the government does not consider former President Bharrat Jagdeo as the opposition leader as he has not taken an oath in the National Assembly, he said that what is being seen in the media are the criticisms “of an individual who I am not quite sure represents the total views of the PPP party and therefore we will respond in due course once we recognize that these are the views of the PPP/C”. He noted that the government is seeing Jagdeo “standing out there on his own” making statements and the plan is to address them “one by one”.
He made it clear that the budget presented was not a PPP budget adding that what was laid out was government’s 2020 vision. “This is what the APNU+AFC administration will do in the next five years. Certainly the PPP could not have had such a vision because their last term in office was a three year term and so what would have happened there were some projects which would have been in the pipeline …..And as a responsible government we don’t have to reinvent the wheel”. He said that the finance minister had made it clear that some of the ideas that were there in the ministry “were government ideas they were not the sole preserve of the PPP or Bharrat Jagdeo”. Harmon said that some of the persons who developed these programmes were state workers.
Minister of Tourism Cathy Hughes told reporters that under the leadership of the late Desmond Hoyte in the late 1980s the economy began to improve.
“The PPP at that time had the majority to continue a lot of the projects which were started in 1987 and therefore I say it is the responsibility of any mature government to be able to look at what has been put in place and to review it and to decide what is important, what is beneficial and to move forward and to continue with those programmes”. She said that government can create havoc in the economy if it is suggested that a policy introduced by one administration must be discontinued by the next. “In a case like that we are not looking at the long-term development of this country as a priority and therefore I say I am excited at the maturity of this administration that we are looking at projects that have been there and we are working in the best interest of this country…whether they are beneficial to the people of Guyana”, she said.
Further, Hughes told reporters that back in 2011, Jagdeo had the opportunity to increase the old age pension to the $17, 000 as it stands now and to increase the minimum wage to $50, 000. “Therefore the question should be, why when he had the opportunity those things were not done?” she asked as Harmon shook his head and muttered in agreement. Hughes pointed out that it is time for a higher level of debate and less time should be spent dealing with these “mundane issues”.
“Let us get into how we are going to build this country. Let us get into ensuring that we are accountable to the people”, she said.
