PPP mulls taking salary increase for MPs
PPP General Secretary Clement Rohee
PPP General Secretary Clement Rohee

IN what is considered to be a contradictory move, the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) yesterday announced its intention to consider the 19% increase being offered to its Members of Parliament, although it is up in arms against the decision to increase the salaries of Cabinet ministers. “We haven’t made any decision whether we will accept or reject as a political party- there has to be consultation on this matter with our MPs,” PPP/C General Secretary Clement Rohee told the press.

Former Minister Dr. Jennifer Westford
Former Minister Dr. Jennifer Westford

As part of the Ministers, Members of Parliament and Special Offices (Emoluments) Order of 2015, the APNU+AFC government through the Finance Ministry has included a 19% increase for MPs. MPs are now slated to receive $2.4M per annum.
Additionally, the PPP/C General Secretary declined to respond to the 50% increase that has been placed on the table for Leader of the Opposition Bharrat Jagdeo. Jagdeo is now in line to receive $10.4M per annum as against $6.9M; however, just days before officially taking up the post as Leader of the Opposition, Jagdeo, a former President, had signalled his intention to reject his monthly salary which was $500,000 at the time for his $1.4M pension.
Meanwhile, Rohee, while speaking at Freedom House, condemned the decision by government to increase the salaries of the prime minister, vice presidents, and senior and junior ministers, even as he called on the David Granger-led administration to rescind the decision.
With the order in place, the prime minister will now receive a salary of $20,580, 000 per annum while every vice president with the exception of the prime minister will receive a salary of $11,135,065 per annum. Additionally, Cabinet members will receive $10,439,124 annually or approximately $869,927 monthly, while junior ministers are in line to receive approximately $695,000 monthly or $8,346,492 per annum.
“To grant such astronomical increases in salaries to functionaries in a government that is only four months old is unconscionable, precipitous and insensitive,” Rohee opined.
In expressing the party’s disappointment, the General Secretary pointed out that it was Minister of State Joseph Harmon who declared in June, 2015 that “APNU+AFC had essentially found the cupboard bare, meaning the public treasury had no money and that the country was bankrupt.”
“Now with the public disclosure of the ugly increases to the APNU+AFC Cabinet and non-Cabinet members, the question now being asked is how, with a bankrupt economy and an empty treasury can such whopping increases in salaries be afforded?” He argued that Guyanese tax payers will have to bear the burden of the increases.
On Tuesday, the Minister of State said that the increases are justifiable and well-deserved, arguing that PPP/C Ministers were willing to accept low salaries because they were thieving from “all over the place.” But Rohee while failing to negate such a point of view, said that the government must provide the evidence. “I don’t necessarily agree that because you are drawing down on one pay packet, you ought to draw another pay packet somewhere else.”
The general-secretary made these comments at a time when the party’s former Public Service Minister and sitting Member of Parliament, Jennifer Westford has been named in a $600M police investigation.
The former minister, along with the personnel officer at the Public Service Ministry, Margaret Cummings, appeared in late July of this year before City Magistrate Ann McLennan to answer to charges laid against them.
The former minister answered to four counts of attempt to commit a felony, one of which said that between July 17, 2014, and June 23, 2015, at the Public Service Ministry in Georgetown, she attempted to have motor vehicles PJJ 8113 and PKK 2175 transferred to the name of Wayne Walker, although those vehicles belonged to the Government of Guyana.
Another charge stated that during the same period, at the Public Service Ministry, in an attempt to commit larceny, Westford also sought to transfer motor vehicle PFF 1780 to the name of Delroy Lewis, being the property of the Government of Guyana.
The third charge was that Westford, during the same period at the Public Service Ministry, attempted to commit larceny as she sought to transfer motor vehicle PJJ 3444 to her name.
She further denied that between July 17, 2014 and June 23, 2015, at the Public Service Ministry, she also attempted to commit larceny in seeking to transfer motor vehicles PKK 6400, PEE 8783 and PJJ 6675 to the name of Gary Beaton.
Westford was placed on $200,000 bail for each of the charges against her. The Opposition MP was also fingered in the disappearance of $400M supposedly disbursed into her safekeeping from the then Office of the President for work to be done by her ministry. The sum was subsequently said to be $600M, according to a police source with knowledge of the investigation.

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