THE granting of an end-of-year bonus to ranks of the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) is a “discretion” exercised by President Donald Ramotar, after reviewing the annual performances of the Joint Services.

Furthermore, the award has never been “elevated” to the level of an across-the-board measure, Head of the Presidential Secretariat (HPS), Dr. Roger Luncheon informed his post-Cabinet media briefing on Thursday.
Luncheon was speaking in the context of the recent move by four GDF officers, to challenge, in the High Court, the withholding of the payment for 2012.
He told reporters at Office of the President, in Shiv Chanderpaul Drive, Georgetown: “We are not unmindful that this matter is sub judice (before the Court). However, the notion that the Commander-in-Chief’s decision intended to provide the indiscriminate granting of the bonus, that concession, to members of the Joint Services, that notion cannot be allowed to go unchallenged.
“The Defence Board asserts that since the introduction of the annual bonus, provided by the authority of the Commander-in-Chief, the intention and the practice in its implementation has, indeed, not allowed for the indiscriminate access by members of the Joint Services”, Luncheon clarified.
The court case, in which the four officers have challenged the authority of Chief of Staff, Commodore Gary Best, to withhold the benefit from them, comes up, again, next week.