Two Saturdays ago, the President announced the grant of the usual annual tax-free Christmas bonus of one month’s salary to the Disciplined Services for ‘their unwavering service, sacrifice, and commitment to safeguarding the nation’s security’. On several occasions, we raised the issue of whether other categories of government workers are not deserving of a bonus as well and whether the grant of a bonus to one category of government workers is not considered discriminatory. In the private sector, year-end bonuses to all categories of workers are a norm for profit-making entities, depending on their performance for the year under review. And last Thursday, the St Lucian Government announced that all public sector workers and government pensioners will each receive a one-off $500 bonus to be deposited into their bank accounts.
In our article of 9 December 2024, we began a discussion of the constitutional/legislative frameworks governing the establishment and functioning of the procurement bodies. This was in the light of the political Opposition’s call for representation on the National Procurement and Tender Board Association (NPTAB) as well as regional tender boards in order to reduce corrupt practices and to ensure transparency in the procurement process.