The 50% salary hike for cabinet members was “fair” and “necessary”, according to Minister of Governance Raphael Trotman who today said that a junior level high court judge is paid over $1M per month and as such there ought to be parity between the executive, legislature and judicial branches of government.
“We say to the people of Guyana to trust us. You trusted us with government on May 11, we ask you to continue to trust and to believe in us”, Trotman said when asked to say something to the ordinary man who earns $50, 000 while government members are now set to collect large salaries.
Trotman is the latest government minister to respond to the growing criticisms which are centred mainly on the fact that the APNU+AFC government is still in its infancy stage having assumed office only four months ago and in the wake of public servants receiving a 5% which was only made retroactive from July this year when they had originally been promised a “significant” hike.
At a post cabinet press briefing today Trotman was bombarded with questions pertaining to the issue and defended the decision while urging the populace to trust and believe in the government.
Asked how government will face the nation in light of the mounting criticisms that this is a political misstep, Trotman clarified that government did not say that it has no apologies to make. He said that the press has been quoting a minister “who I think was asked to give a comment at an event that he thought was quite momentous and quiet symbolic…and I think perhaps…he was caught off guard but not necessarily that he was misspeaking but I think just perhaps giving an opinion”, he said.
The Minister being referred to is Minister of State Joseph Harmon. While speaking to reporters at the National Cultural Centre last Tuesday Harmon said that he would make no apologies for the 50% salary increases to Cabinet ministers, arguing that it is well-deserved.
When asked to justify the increase, he said “The ministers of government now justify an increase. The salary of a minister, a senior minister is five hundred and sixty something thousand a month. That is money I paid to one of my attorneys that works for me when I was in private practice. Why should I be working for that?”
Harmon’s remarks have attracted wide public criticism.
The order for the increase was approved by the Minister of Finance Winston Jordan two days prior to being published in the Official Gazette on September 23, 2015.
Speaking on the salary increase, Trotman told the media that a statement made by Jordan in today’s Kaieteur News, “aptly sets out cabinet’s view and position on the matter and why there was need for the increases…it is not a matter for us giving an apology and not giving an apology but we have provided in our option the explanation to the nature”.
In his comments to the Kaieteur News, Jordan while noting that the decision will not be reversed, said that the increase were necessary to outline an income for Vice Presidents which did not exist before, to correct anomalies in the payment structure and because the work load for the government had increased.
Trotman said that the fact that Jordan and other ministers have been engaging the press on the matter means that “we are not hiding from the nation or hiding from the press…there is no need for us to run and hide or no desire to do so. I think that would be both cowardly and foolish”.
He said that if a comparative study of the salaries of government and judicial officers throughout the region is done, “we will find these are in no way above or far from what is the norm…there is nothing to say that everyone got the same and I think that we are also escaping the fact that the Leader of the Opposition also got a sizeable increase so did every member of parliament”.
According to the Official Gazette, Cabinet ministers will now receive $10,439,124 annually, a 50% increase from what was previously stated in the Principal Act.
Junior ministers will earn $8,346,492, an over 16% increase from the annual salary of a Cabinet minister under the former administration, which was $6,959,412 annually.
Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo will now receive $20,580,000 annually, an over $2 million increase from what was previously stipulated in the Principal Act, taking his monthly salary to over $1.7 million.
Vice-Presidents, other than the Prime Minister, are to be paid $11,135,064 per annum and also enjoying a 50% increase will be the Speaker of the National Assembly, who will remain on par with Cabinet ministers as well as the Leader of the Opposition.
Trotman informed that there is presently a proposal before cabinet for consideration to be given to former MPs from all the political parties. He said that many of them get a parliament pension of $20, 000 or less and they have complained.
In further justifying the increases he said that a high court judge at the most junior level receives a salary in excess of $1M per month. He noted that there are three branches of government and it is expected that there will be some parity between them.
“In no part of the world has the increase of salaries particularly of politicians and I think followed by judges, gone down well because there is always a public opinion and in fact recent studies have shown that in Latin America and the Caribbean we are at an all-time low of public opinion of elected officials…It is not a popular decision to take”, he added.
According to the Minister, government believes that the increase was “necessary”, even though the 20/20 vision “tells you perhaps that the timing was wrong or it was right but in a matter like this there is no such thing as the right time because other events overtake you, other circumstances change and there is no such time perhaps as the present”.
After being reminded of earlier comments he made to the media that the increases would not happen this year and that it would await the outcome of two inquiries, he said that he did make a pronouncement as directed by cabinet that there were some proposals on the table, stressing that he did not hide this.
“Perhaps I ventured a little too far out by saying not this year…but I did say that the differentiation will come, has to come and that cabinet was studying two proposals”, he said adding that subsequently cabinet took the view that based on what was before it that “it was okay to proceed…and that both the budget and the treasury could sustain the increases and therefore in September, Cabinet formed the opinion unanimously, I must say, that it should go ahead. I don’t believe that it was hidden any place because once you gazette these you are making it open and no attempt was made to hide anything”, Trotman said.
Asked if cabinet consulted with the leading members of the various parties which make up the coalition before deciding on the increases, Harmon told the media that “I believe that the leadership of the parties is represented within the cabinet and as I said before we never hid the fact that increases were coming…perhaps some may say that they came too fast however it was well known and accepted that increases were inevitable”.
Asked what was the criteria used by cabinet in arriving at what the increase should be, he said he is not at liberty to get into the details of a cabinet meeting except to say that “cabinet actually rejected both proposals because both proposals that came from independent sources tagged the salaries beyond what was finally agreed on and so cabinet found a compromise position between the two proposals and settled on what we have right now”.
Astronomical
Back in August, Trotman had denied that there will be “astronomical” pay increases. When asked whether the 50% increase fits into this category especially when compared to the 5% given to public servants, he said that he doesn’t believe that a 50% increase is astronomical. “A 100(%) is astronomical. 50% is fair in my view”, he said.
President of the Guyana Public Service Union (GPSU) Patrick Yarde last Thursday told Stabroek News that though he saw nothing wrong with the increases, similar considerations must be given to other qualified persons and the inadequacies of salaries across the public sector should be addressed.
“I do not object to the increase in salaries. I have a list of personnel from the previous government who were being paid higher salaries…. The only concern that I have is that similar consideration must be given to other qualified persons,” he said while making it clear that this was his personal view and that of the union which he heads.
For him the salary increases given are not excessive but he admitted that a lot of public servants are inadequately paid and a similar approach must be taken.
Attorney General Basil Williams when asked to respond to the issue said that the process used was transparent.
“I think it is transparent don’t you? But those questions have been answered already. I don’t wish to deal with that question now. My colleagues have spoken on that question,” he said in response to questions raised by a reporter outside the Supreme Court.
According to commentator Christopher Ram, the increase is a giant misstep and he urged that the National Assembly appoint an independent Compensation Committee to look into the question of compensation for political appointees.
“In that Budget, the minimum salary in the public service was increased from $42,703 per month to $50,000 per month, or 17.1%. But there was a catch: unlike every other year in the past thirty years, the increase was for half the year only. The effective increase then, for the people at the bottom of the scale, for 2015 over 2014, is 8.5%. For public servants receiving a salary of $100,000, the increase was 10%, or 5% over a full year, and for those receiving $200,000 and $500,000 the effective annual increase was 3.75% and 3.0% respectively,” he wrote on his blog chrisram.net.
“There was an additional increase of $5,000 per month for persons above the minimum wage. Note that for public servants the higher salaries attracted lower percentages and lower salaries attracted higher percentages. Cabinet clearly did not think that principle applied to them,” Ram said while pointing out that the APNU+AFC’s 100 days commitment was “Significant salary increases for government workers, including nurses, teachers in primary, secondary and tertiary education; security personnel; and civil servants on the traditional payroll.”
Ram did not exclude the fact that the 2015 pension increases were subject to no retroactivity from his publication.
The salary increases have also been strongly condemned by former Auditor General Anand Goolsarran who called for them to be rescinded.
In his accountability column in Stabroek News earlier this week, Goolsarran said there had been quite justifiably, a tsunami of criticisms and condemnation from all sections of the Guyanese society
He said that while there was some anticipation that there would be some adjustment to the salaries of Ministers in recognition of the fact that there are now two categories of Ministers and three Vice-Presidents, “one is alarmed at the extent of the increase”.
Goolsarran argued that ministers also enjoy a range of benefits, including duty-free concession on a motor vehicle by virtue of being Members of Parliament; chauffeur-driven State vehicle(s); housing allowance or the provision of free accommodation; free electricity, telephone and internet services; 24-hour guard service; a gardener/handyman; and maid services.
