Salary-gate scandal

– as Govt MPs receive inflated pay cheques

Ignoring the avalanche of public demands to rescind its decision to grant the huge salary increases to Ministers and

Leader of the Opposition, Bharrat Jagdeo

Members of Parliament (MPs), the Government has compounded its highhandedness by unilaterally paying themselves the increases for the month of October. However, this decision was not taken lightly by the Opposition People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C), which on Wednesday argued that the Government’s decision to implement the increases can only take effect after the Order receives the approval of the National Assembly. In fact, the PPP/C will today lay a motion in the National Assembly to annul the exorbitant salary increases that the current Administration has given to all Government officials and imposed upon all MPs despite it being wholly rejected by PPP/C parliamentarians. The Opposition said that several of its MPs on Tuesday received by hand their payslips from the Parliament Office for the month of October 2015 and to their surprise, they were paid the salary increases. This occurred despite the fact that Leader of the Opposition, Bharrat Jagdeo had announced that the PPP/C MPs would not be accepting the increased salaries. In a statement issued on Wednesday, the Opposition said that the Government, by hastily paying these increases in salaries to themselves, was clearly subverting the role of the National Assembly, violating the Standing Orders and contravening the law. It added that this was designed to defeat the PPP/C’s efforts to challenge these “unconscionable salary increases in the National Assembly”. “On October 19, 2015, we issued a statement signalling our unequivocal rejection of these salary increases, as well as

President David Granger

expressing our intention to lay a motion in the National Assembly seeking to reverse and annul all the salary increases which were the subject of an Order of the Minister of Finance issued under Ministers, Members of the National Assembly and Special Offices (Emoluments) Act. Our motion is intended to call upon the National Assembly not to approve these increases but to reverse them,” the statement reminded. The Opposition said that the decision by the Government Ministers to pay themselves these salary increases was made in similar circumstances. “No public announcement was made at any Cabinet press briefin gs or anywhere else although the decision was made some time ago,” the Opposition said in its statement. The nation came by this information by a surreptitious extraordinary publication in the Official Gazette, it argued, adding that “we are again witnessing similar trickery and deception. But this will not stop us from proceeding with our motion in the National Assembly and from pursuing every other available avenue to annul and reverse these reprehensible salary increases which we now realise have been paid in violation of the law and parliamentary norms and practices.”

Negative Resolutions However, Clerk of the National Assembly, Sherlock Isaacs, when contacted by this newspaper, said that he did not share the view of the Opposition, which he deemed was “wrong”. He pointed this newspaper to Standing Order 70, dealing with Negative Resolutions. The Standing Order states, “The period prescribed for the purpose of Section 22 (1) of the Interpretation and General Clauses Act, Chapter 2:01 [which relates to subsidiary legislation subject to negative resolution of the National Assembly] shall be 40 days from the date on which the subsidiary legislation is laid before the Assembly. (2) Where notice of a motion that any subsidiary legislation subject to negative resolution shall be annulled is given within 21 days of the date on which the subsidiary legislation is laid before the Assembly, that motion shall be debated as soon as practicable and in any event before the expiration of the period prescribed in paragraph one (1) hereof.” Isaacs argued that the order was to be laid before the House for merely information purposes. He added that on the other hand, an Affirmative Resolution needed the approval of the Assembly and was normally accompanied by a motion. Efforts to contact Finance Minister Winston Jordan for a comment proved futile. The Official Gazette, published on September 25, 2015, stated that Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo would be benefiting from a whopping $20,580,000 per annum, while the other Vice Presidents would each receive $11,135,064. In addition to the increased salary for Prime Minister Nagamootoo of $1.7 million monthly, an increase of over $200,000 each month, he is drawing   vacation benefits and perks totalling more than an additional $500,000. The three other Vice Presidents – Sydney Allicock, Carl Greenidge, and Khemraj Ramjattan –will earn some $1.13 million, double the $579,000 which they would have earned as Ministers. In addition, the vacation and other benefits are also $500,000. A Cabinet Minister is now earning a hefty sum of $10,439,124 annually and a Junior Minister or a Minister within a Ministry is paid $8,346,492 per annum. Meanwhile, the Leader of the Opposition is offered $10,439, 124 on an annual basis, but Jagdeo has already indicated he would not be accepting this salary.