| – Govt. will not reverse decisionBy Kiana WilburgFinance Minister, Winston JordanFinance Minister, Winston Jordan, said yesterday that the salary increases for Members of Parliament were necessary for three reasons; to outline an income for Vice Presidents which did not exist before,Wholesale Jerseys USA, to correct anomalies in the payment structure and finally, because the work load has increased.Jordan said, “We inherited a system where the President was receiving a salary of about $2M non-taxable. The Prime Minister was receiving a taxable salary of some $1.5M while the Attorney General,Cheap NFL Jerseys China, the Chancellor and the Chief Justice were receiving $1.6M.“There was no allocation for Vice Presidents; this position did not exist under the PPP. But the senior and junior ministers were receiving the same pay of about $579, 000. What do you notice?”He continued, “It is clear that there are huge anomalies there. The President, Prime Minister and AG are receiving massive salaries and your seniors and juniors are at the same level. Nowhere in the Caribbean does such a system exist.”The Finance Minister explained that for junior ministers, the $579, 000 was increased by 12 ½ percent while for senior ministers it was increased by 50 percent. As for the Vice Presidents,Cheap MLB Jerseys China, he said, they received a 60 percent increase on the $579,000.He noted that the $1.6M salary for the Attorney General was increased by five percent while the Prime Minister’s salary was increased by 10.7 percent.He confirmed yesterday that President David Granger stands to benefit from the increase as his salary will be raised by five percent.The salary increases were published in the Official Gazette of September 25.Jordan said, “I am not sure why people were saying that it was 50 percent increase across the board because it was not done in that way. The increases were calculated based on fixing the anomalies which do not exist in the public service system. “The percentages were also used to widen the gap between the payments so that you can be able to have a scale which differentiates between the various positions. There are also some super ministries which we have now and the work load has increased immensely.”Several agencies and letter writers have criticized the government for increasing the salaries at this time stating that no evaluation was done to show that it is deserved.There have also been criticisms that the salary increase was done at the wrong time,Wholesale Authentic Jerseys Outlet, especially when the government had said that the country’s revenue earners are not performing and that the Consolidated Fund was in heavy overdraft.The government had also stated that major increases for workers in certain public sectors would not be economically feasible at this time yet increases were somehow feasible for their ministers.The Finance Minister insisted that the salary increases were necessary and justifiable.He said,Cheap Nike NFL Jerseys, “There are about 13 senior ministers who got the 50 percent increases. Not 500 or 5000 ministers; just 13.”He then referred to the increases for public servants, reminding that the minimum basic salary of each public servant was bumped up to $50,000, which translates to a 26.4 percent increase for those who earned the old minimum wage of $39,540 and 17.1 percent for over 4,000 public servants earning the current minimum wage of $42,703.He said that this was complemented by the fact that all other public servants receive an additional $5,000 monthly.“So it is nauseating when you read persons saying that the “five” percent increase is measly when this is not the case.”As for the argument that now is not the opportune time for ministerial salary increases, Jordan retorted,Joel Campbell Arsenal Jersey UK, “So when is the opportune time? And who is doing the evaluation of the ministers? The reality is that the people either vote you in or the vote you out based on your performance.“We are saying that these increases are necessary. We are here to do the work of the people and make the systems work. I maintain that these changes were necessary as the President had pointed out before. We are not going to change our decision. “Over the weekend, Political Activist and University Professor, Dr David Hinds contended that Government’s recent decision to increase the salaries for Members of Parliament (MPs) will go down as its “second, big misstep.”Dr. Hinds said that the decision should have been influenced by a number of crucial social factors.He said that the fact that it was not, suggests “political naivety, arrogance, insensitivity” or all of those.He made the case however that it is not the increase that is fueling the public outrage but rather, “the politics and the principle which underpin it.” He believes that there are three crucial factors at work. |
