Parliament approves Pensions Amendment Bill 2010
… MPs no longer required to attain 40 years to receive pension
THE Pensions (President, Parliamentary and Special Officers Amendment) Bill 2010 was brought to the National Assembly yesterday, and passed only after being met by fierce criticisms from the Opposition.
The passage of the Bill saw the removal of the requirement that a legislator reach the age of 40 before accessing his/her pension, paid from a scheme that the individual contributed to from the initiation of service. However, Leader of the People’s National Congress Reform – One Guyana (PNCR-1G), Mr. Robert Corbin, said the Bill is one that would put Members of Parliament in a bad light.
He explained that members of the public may perceive the National Assembly to be looking after their own interests rather than the interests of public servants who, according to him, are paid pensions that do not address their needs in a tangible way.
Corbin called for any reviews to payment of pensions be done in a holistic manner.
Prime Minister Samuel Hinds, who piloted the Bill’s passage on behalf of Finance Minister Dr. Ashni Singh, made it clear that public servants have not been forgotten by the current administration and have been supported by way of consistent increases time after time.
He added that there will be no changes in the calculations of pensions paid to MPs, rather a change in how soon it can be accessed by those who both served and contributed to the scheme.
“It is a simple Bill,” Hinds stressed.

ANOMALIES
PNCR-1G MP and Shadow Finance Minister, Mrs. Volda Lawrence, brought the House’s attention to what she called several “anomalies” with the Bill, pointing first to the name, Pensions (President, Parliamentary and Special Officer Amendment) Bill 2010.
According to her, the pension to the President was dealt with in the previous bill in 2004, and there was no reason for the word President to be included in the Bill’s name.
She also described the pensions paid to public servants as paltry and bearing no reality to the escalating cost of living.
She pointed out that the Opposition has made repeated calls for an increase in the pensions paid to public servants and decried what she called a “push” for the National Insurance Scheme (NIS) pensionable age to be upped from 60 to 65-years.
Government MP, Mr. Manzoor Nadir, debunked this particular ‘anomaly’, as well as the others raised by Lawrence.
He pointed out that the team that met to review the insurance scheme made the recommendation for the change in the pensionable age.
Lawrence pressed that the Bill was giving “treats” to the MPs, rather than address the concerns of the public servants and called it both a “disgrace” and a glaring example of the government’s disregard for the people.
Nadir stressed that with the Bill’s passage, the House was not giving out treats, rather was making more accessible to MPs what is their right, since they contributed to a scheme from which the monies will be paid.

According to him, information was misrepresented by the Opposition, whose members advanced statements that lacked validity.

MP Gail Teixeira pointed to the current make-up of the National Assembly, and said compared to Parliaments in other territories, Guyana has a young Parliament.
She also noted that 13 of the current MPs are under 40.
Teixeira said the passage of the Bill is a progressive move that recognises and embraces the fact that the Parliament is a young one.

SIMPLE AMENDMENT
That said, she maintained that the Amendment considered is a simple one, the pension scheme is a contributory scheme, and the only change being made is when one can access it.
Corbin pressed on, however, and pointed out that the general pensionable age is between 55 and 60, while that of the MPs is only 40 and that is being changed.
The Prime Minister dismissed the contributions made by the Opposition as “nothing but grandstanding”.