President says unable to commit to bonus for public servants at this point
Government cannot commit to public servants receiving a bonus this year as its current status restricts spending, President David Granger this morning said.
“I cannot, at this point and time, say whether funds will be available for payments of public servants. So I am not saying no, but after the next Cabinet meeting, the Minister of Finance will be able to make an announcement on that matter, but I don’t want to build up any hopes because we are in an interim administration mode,” Granger said in response to questions from Stabroek News at an accreditation ceremony at the Ministry of the Presidency.
He explained that the No-Confidence Motion of last December 21st and subsequent Caribbean Court of Justice’s ruling on the matter was the reason, as he stressed that he has accepted that his APNU+AFC is only interim.
“As far as public servants’ bonuses are concerned, as you know we have been restricted but he Caribbean Court of Justice from embarking on expenditures or agreements which are likely to collide with the convention of an interim administration. We have accepted that we are an interim administration. I have not travelled to any international conferences for over a year and we have entered into any major agreements,” he said.
The government is also to announce a wage increase for this year for public servants. The government over the last four years has arbitrarily set a figure. There has been no free collective bargaining.
While the APNU+AFC administration had promised free collective bargaining during their 2015 general and regional elections campaigns, this has not been a reality and it has seen unions flaying them for not holding true to their word.
Union leaders have told this newspaper that it appears the coalition simply bit off more than it could chew and made no effort to establish a policy framework as a structured means to realize its promises.
“It is not enough to say we will follow a policy of collective bargaining there must be clear policy framework guided by your developmental thrust,” veteran trade unionist Lincoln Lewis had said back in September.
