$1.6B out of $4.4B used for 5% salary increase

Jan 24, 2014 News

Finance Minister,
Dr. Ashni Singh

There was a big brouhaha that emanated after the announcement of the five per cent increase for public servants last year. Opposition parties and labour unions insisted that there was enough in the voted provisions under revision of wages and salaries in the budget to pay at least 15 per cent more.
As such Finance Minister, Dr Ashni Singh, was asked to prove to the members of the House why more than five percent could not be paid using the $4.4B allocation in the budget last year for the revision of wages and salaries. Making the request was A Partnership for National Unity’s (APNU) Basil Williams.
Williams in a question tabled in Parliament had asked the Minister to provide particulars, “the specific amounts utilized in relation to the following components of the $4.4B allocated under the head Revision of Wages and Salaries in the 2013 Budget…These are: Increase in wages and salaries; new employment and promotions.
Dr Singh in providing the formal answer to the House yesterday noted that in utilizing the $4.4B an amount of $1.6B was used to pay the five per cent increase.
He said that employment shortfalls arising from new recruits amounted to $1.3B while employment costs shortfalls as a result of promotion totaled $300M.
Dr Singh noted that $500M was utilized to pay the one-month bonus to the Disciplined Services.
He stated too that another $700M was used as payment of employment cost shortfalls at subventions agencies while other employment shortfalls arising from payment of salary in lieu of leave and other activities was some $100M.
Dr Singh did point out that some of the agencies were able to make the five percent increase payment from their own voted provisions.
When word came of the five per cent increase there was a wave of protests countrywide. Nurses were particularly vociferous.
Public Service Minister, Jennifer Westford had at the time defended the five per cent payout saying that public servants should be happy.
She had told this publication in an earlier interview that workers need to understand that Government is proposing what it can afford.
Minister Westford said that the workers should be happy because Guyana is one of the few countries in the world that has been offering any salary increases to its public servants.
She said that Government has been consistently giving its public servants increases on an annual basis.
Minister Westford posited that if one were to take a look at several countries in the Caribbean and further afield, workers are in fact being laid off and some have had to take pay cuts in order to keep their jobs.
“We can’t give what we don’t have,” said Minister Westford and urged that workers be more understanding of the prevailing economy not just in Guyana but across the world.
Head of the Presidential Secretariat, Dr. Roger Luncheon, had announced that Government will be giving public service workers an increase in pay for 2013.