Government is to present a bill to parliament which is aimed at giving former Prime Minister Hamilton Green a pension that would enable him to live in accordance with the “high office” he occupied between 1985-92 and benefits under a highly controversial act for former Presidents would also be applicable to him.
According to the Order Paper distributed by Parliament Office, Minister of Finance Winston Jordan will at the assembly’s 46th sitting table Act No. 23 of 2016 which intends to provide a pension, benefits and other facilities to Green “to enable him to live in keeping with the high office he occupied.”
The Prime Minister Hamilton Green Pension Act 2016, which will be read for the first time on Monday November 21, 2016, provides for Green to be paid a pension “based on the salary paid to the Prime Minister, as though he actually earned the said salary, taking into consideration his record of service as a legislator.” It also provides for Green to receive all benefits provided for by the Former President (Benefits and Other Facilities) Act 2015.
In fact according to Article 4 of the act wherever the word “President” occurs in the Former President’s Act it shall be substituted by the words “Prime Minister” and be applicable to Green.
The legislation has already drawn the criticism of the opposition People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) with former Attorney General Anil Nandlall describing it as the “greatest act of hypocrisy in modern day politics.” Stabroek News was unable to secure a comment from either Minister of Finance Jordan or APMU+AFC Chief Whip Amna Ally.
“It is completely unnecessary; an utter waste of taxpayers’ money and hypocritical of a coalition which promised clean and lean government with no cronyism,” Nandlall told Stabroek News.
He argued that Green who served as PM from 1985 to 1992 demitted office an entire generation ago, before most of those now paying taxes in Guyana were born, so it is unfair to now ask that his pension be financed by their taxes at this late stage.
He further raised concerns about the fact that the pension was pegged to the salary of the current PM and he was being afforded all the benefits of a former President inclusive of the services of clerical and technical staff.
The present PM Moses Nagamootoo receives $20,580,000 annually after an over $2M increase in 2015. His monthly salary is more than $1.7M.
“It is an abominable wrong compounded by the fact that it is being committed by a coalition which has promised a clean and lean government with no cronyism. This is the coalition which as the opposition took the PPP to task for years for the Former Presidents Pension and other Facilities Act. They said it was the worst thing that ever happened in Guyana. Every one of them. Now we have what is an outstanding example of rewarding a political hack in what constitutes an utter waste of taxpayers’ money,” Nandlall said.
Green however believes that the bill “is timely, just, fair, and in order.”
Speaking with Stabroek News he asserted that such acts which are a “universal practice, in every corner of the globe, shows that leaders of the numbers one and two posts when they demit office, receive benefits until they die.”
“That is universal practice. There is nothing unusual about it. Most of these benefits generally relates to the salary of the incumbent or sometimes a percentage, maybe seventy or eighty percent or more…so that they can live in dignity with the office they once held,” he said adding that “when the PPP brought the [Former Presidents] bill in 2011, they did not include the Prime Minister. I don’t know why but probably because there was Sam Hinds that would have served as President himself and would have benefitted from the President’s Benefits anyhow. Only PPP members benefit from that bill, you have (former President Bharrat) Jagdeo, Hinds and (former President Donald) Ramotar.”
Green is of the view that every former Prime Minister should get those benefits, in keeping with the global practices, to make their lives be at least to a level of comfort that they had in the post. The bill however speaks only to Green.
He reminded that when the Former Presidents’ Bill was presented in 2011 then Prime Minister Hinds wrote a very impassioned letter in which he had said that people who held high office should live with dignity.
“He wrote that letter, he defended the rather generous benefits directed to former presidents,” Green declared.
The Former Prime Minister who served as Mayor of Georgetown from 1994 to 2015 says he has been living skimpily on the largesse of his wife and children.
Presently he receives $100,000 in pension as a former parliamentarian. Asked about benefits he receives as Mayor, Green said that the mayor’s stipend was “nothing to brag about it was thirty or forty something thousand.”
“If it wasn’t for my wife and children where would I be. I am not ashamed to say it. I have been able to maintain a certain level of living thanks to them,” he told Stabroek News.
Green would not say whether he had asked the Government to provide these benefits, he however suggested that the present administration intends to table similar bills in relation to the benefits for former ministers and former parliamentarians.
“Let’s just say a case was put up, whereby the constitution everywhere was looked at as it related to benefits. I also expect parliament to look at some other issues, benefits for former ministers and former parliamentarians. That was also highlighted and I think that that matter is also being looked at”, Green said.
