INCREASE THE SALARIES OF MINISTERS FURTHER
The government needs to stop making explanations for the increases in salaries paid to Ministers. If the government has nothing to apologize over, it should not have anything to explain also. The government has made a mess whenever it has tried to explain the increases to its Ministers. Every time some government official offers an explanation it is a different explanation from what someone else offered. The Minister of Finance is the latest person to offer an explanation. But to me his main justification makes no sense. If the government needed to ensure some differentiation between the salaries of the Junior Ministers and the Senior Ministers and the Senior Ministers and the Vice Presidents, why would you have to increase the Junior Ministers salaries by 12 percent and increase the senior Ministers by 50 percent? Why not increase the Senior Ministers by 20 percent and the Juniors by 12 percent? This would have created a satisfactory differential. Or alternatively leave the Senior Ministers salaries as they were and decrease the Junior Ministers pay. But even if we accept that there was a need to increase the salaries of the Senior Minister, why increase also the super salaries of the Prime Minister and now we are learning the President? Those explanations offered by the Minister of Finance are not going to go down well with the public. Right now there is an anomaly between the salaries of Ministers and the salaries of Headteachers. So one can only hope that come next year, this huge gap between the two salaries will be attended to. See what I mean when I say that the explanations make little sense. It is therefore best that the government keeps its mouth shut and ride out this political storm. Of course they always have the option of remedying the situation. One way of remedying the situation is to increase the salaries of all the Ministers to one million dollars per month. But in return these Ministers should pay their own electricity bill, they should pay their own water bill, they should pay their own telephone bills. They should not be entitled to chauffeurs, duty free concessions or to maids and gardeners. They should all be paid one million dollars per month but pay their own expenses. The State will end up saving and the very persons who feel that the government should not have granted itself a huge salary increase will be happy. Why is it that Ministers should not be allowed to pay their own utility bills? Why is it that Ministers have to be provided with chauffeurs and fancy State-owned vehicles? Why is it that taxpayers have to pay for a maid and gardener for someone who is working for a handsome salary? And who is it that decides these benefits? Well you guessed right. It is the very government that decides. Right now there is something called a Commission of Inquiry that is taking place to determine what benefits public servants should receive. I have a few cents to bet that the outcome of this inquiry will not see recommendations for junior public servants to enjoy free electricity, free telephone service, and free security or free maids and gardeners. If junior public servants do not pay their electricity bill by the 18th day of each month, the disconnection crew will be dispatched to cut the electricity supply to their building. To have the electricity reconnected, the junior officials have to pay a reconnection fee of $3, 500. The disconnection crew is not interested in any explanation. Once your account is in the red by a certain amount, you have to be disconnected. No one from GPL calls you to remind you that your bills are due. They should be doing this because their customers are their clients. GPL treats its clients very shabbily. They cut you off without giving you a chance to put yourself in order. It is interesting that we have never heard about the electricity supply of a Minister being disconnected. You see who ever pays the bills for the Ministers, pays them on time. That may well become another justification for the benefits that Ministers receive. It can be argued that if the State does not pay the utility bills of Ministers they will end up in darkness and without water because they are so busy they simply do not have the time to join any line at the utility company.
