Gov’t largesse a slap in the face of Guyanese people
Friday , October 9 2015, Source
I HAVE noted with interest the recent astronomical salary increases awarded by the Minister of Finance to himself and his Cabinet colleagues by way of an Order gazetted on 25 September 2015. This display of largesse with oneself at the expense of the public purse is nothing short of a scandalous outrage and a slap in the faces of the working people of Guyana who were told by the same Minister of Finance that he cannot afford to pay them more than five per cent and with effect from July instead of January as is customary.
It is immoral and greedy, and discloses the self-serving dishonesty with which the APNU+AFC is marauding over the people of Guyana.
When asked, the Minister of State arrogantly refused to apologise for this outrage, and instead argued that he and his colleagues had been earning much more in their previous pre-Cabinet occupations.
Putting aside the fact that political service is supposed to be self-sacrificing in its very essence, putting aside the fact that those holding political offices in most democratic countries of the world do so at a loss of personal income, I have one simple question to ask of the Minister of State.
If he and his colleagues claim to have been earning so much more in the previous private occupations, would they be so kind as to disclose exactly what income they reported to the Guyana Revenue Authority and how much taxes they paid to that Authority over the past five years prior to entering the Cabinet. I rather suspect that the answer to that question would be interesting.
Surely, Ministers Harmon, Nagamootoo, Ramjattan, Jordan, Sharma (in descending order of seniority) and their other ministerial colleagues, being the new champions of accountable government that they are, would have no difficulty telling the nation what they reported as their incomes and how much taxes they paid to the GRA over the past five years. And, surely, that would be the most reliable measure of the incomes they have had to forego in order to enter the Cabinet, not that even that would justify them fattening themselves whilst starving the hard working people of Guyana.
DONALD RAMOTAR
