“…We are not going to take the salary increase. We are just not going to take it,” Leader of the Opposition Bharrat Jagdeo told Stabroek News yesterday just hours after General Secretary of the People’s Progressive Party Clement Rohee had stated that the party was yet to made a decision on the issue.
Rohee was vague when, at the party’s weekly press briefing, he was asked whether opposition MPs would accept the increase given the party’s vocal rejection of the ministerial 50% pay hike. He said the party had not made a decision as yet, but Jagdeo would be the person to speak on behalf of the party.
Rohee shot down attempts by the media to engage on how transparent the PPP administration had been in relation to ministerial salary hikes in its 23 years in office.
He said that he would not be engaging in any “comparative analysis” between the PPP and the APNU+AFC. Instead, Rohee said, the party would be dealing with the present issue that was in the public domain noting that there was a “clear national consensus on this issue.”
Members of Parliament without a designation will see a 20% salary increase, taking their annual salaries from $2,002,116 to $2,402,532. Parliamentary secretaries and the Chief Whip will earn over 12% more, taking their salaries from $3,336,876 and $2,384,328 to $3,753,984 and $2,682,360 respectively. The Deputy Speaker will now earn $2,702,880, just under a $300,000 annual increase.
“I read in today’s editorial of the Stabroek News a lengthy editorial stating that notwithstanding theses explanations, these platitudes that were given it is still not acceptable. So I would not want to get into the realm of rationalising to explain what was there when the PPP was there the fact of the matter is today… there is almost country-wide condemnation, rejection and non-acceptance of them so no amount of rationalisation apologising or explanation I think would wish this thing away,” he said.
President David Granger has defended the salary hikes, which range as high as 50% for those in Cabinet, calling the move an investment in quality governance.
The increases, which were quietly gazetted without a public announcement, have been met with stiff opposition, particularly since the coalition had promised “significant increases” for public servants during its election campaign, but only delivered a 5% increase in its first national budget.
“We just have to accept what the society is saying,” Rohee said. “The society is saying we don’t accept it… What was there during the PPP times, like the Stabroek News said, has been condemned; has be spoken about so many times over and over again. Don’t worry with that worry with what is before us now.”
Rohee stated that the government had lost all credibility in the eyes of the public with the salary increases. The salary in-creases were made public earlier this month just 2 months after Minister of Governance Raphael Trotman denied that there would be astronomical pay increases for government ministers.
Rohee also quoted from former PPP stalwart Ralph Ramkarran, who in his Sunday Stabroek column wrote that the move by the government was “self-indulgent,” and from Working People’s Alliance member David Hinds who also criticised the government’s lack of common sensitivity.
In his column, Ramkarran questioned how the many experienced politicians in the government could not have known that the collective national senses would revolt against the Cabinet awarding itself any increases at all, much less 50% in most cases, with public servants and seniors having received less than promised on account of shortage of resources and with electricity and water subsidies being removed from seniors.
“How could the government not know that fixing your own salaries from the public purse, which is taxpayers’ moneys held in trust, is an abuse of that trust and of the electorate’s trust?
How could the Cabinet not understand that this is a blatant case of a conflict of interest, as severe as any that can be imagined?” he questioned.
Rohee said, “All things being equal, the APNU+AFC ministers, indeed the entire Granger Cabinet, should be held criminally responsible and charged with the abuse of public trust and state resources consistent with the convention of collective cabinet responsibility.”
