Latest update May 13th, 2024 12:59 AM
Apr 10, 2014 News
A contrast from what govt said two years ago
General Secretary of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP), Clement Rohee, has said that super salaries are paid to contract employees because there is a shortage of skills within the system.
When those positions are filled, super salaries are paid to keep those persons and get the work done, he added.
Rohee was at the time speaking to the perception in some quarters that when Dr. Cheddi Jagan came into office, he attacked super salaries but that this fight has now been overturned by the PPP Government.
The General Secretary of the PPP agreed that Dr. Jagan fought super salaries but did not agree that the fight was overturned.
According to Rohee, “You have to go back to what the salaries were; Ministers, top public servants etc., and you would be able to see what they were earning at the time when they got into government and over the years with the constant increases what they are receiving today… This was not just a quantum leap.”
Rohee added, “Government also moved to engage many persons on a contractual basis. This was because there was a severe shortage of certain skills in the system. And if there was a severe shortage of skills in the system and you really need these people, you have to make a decision. Do you want these people and do you pay them for what they are qualified or do you simply fall prey to the opposition view that says, ‘don’t give super salaries and leave a big gap in the system.”
According to Rohee, all decision makers have to decide at some point, “whether you leave a gap in the system because you want to adhere to their whims and fancies that look boy, don’t pay this man this super salary or we will get criticized or pay him to get the work done in order for you to fulfill your quota. It seems to me that Governments tend to go the latter way.”
This however, is in sharp contrast to what Government had said two years ago when the combined opposition kicked up a storm over super salaries being paid to government officials on a contractual basis.
Government, through its Public Service Minister Dr. Jennifer Westford, had said in 2012 in a Kaieteur News article captioned “Govt. insists no super salaries paid to contract workers” that contract workers are being paid on par with public servants.
Minister Westford in the article made a point that contract workers are prevalent in Government agencies and is an option exercised.
She further said that even at Parliament, there were 56 contract workers being paid comparative salaries to what public servants are receiving…the only difference is that the contract workers would receive their gratuity twice yearly.
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