The opposition People’s Progressive Party (PPP) today urged the government not to brush aside or ignore public dissent over its decision to increase salaries for government ministers.“If the strength and scope of the public outcry is to be quantified and added to the PPP’s electoral support we can safely and justifiably conclude that a national consensus has emerged around this matter,” PPP General Secretary Clement Rohee said today.

“Moreover, all the claptrap about the abominable increase being an ‘Investment in quality governance’ begs the question whether serving the people should no longer be viewed as a sacrifice and that it is the working people who should be called upon to make that sacrifice.”

On Saturday, President David Granger told the Guyana Chronicle that since Independence governments have devised systems to attract talent and “sometimes persons were paid at different rates.”

“This has continued. What we did is nothing new,” he said.
Granger said his government inherited a situation where “there was already differentiation in salary payment at some levels.

“We took time to consider all aspects of this problem and in the final analysis we felt it was the correct thing to do to ensure a quality of governance from our cabinet,” he said.
According to an Extraordinary Official Gazette dated September 25, Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo received a 10 per cent increase that will now see him being paid $20,580,000 per annum.

Vice Presidents will receive $11,135,064 per annum while senior government Ministers are to receive $10,439,124 per annum. Junior Ministers will receive just over $8,346,492 per annum. The Attorney General will receive the same salary as the Chancellor of the Judiciary; Speaker of the National Assembly is to receive $10,439,124 per annum.

Meanwhile, Leader of the Opposition will receive $10,439,124 while Parliamentary Secretaries will receive $3,753, 984 per annum. The Deputy Speaker will receive $2,702, 880 and Chief Whip will receive $2, 682, 360 per annum.

Every other member of the National Assembly will receive $2, 402, 532 per annum.

Finance Minister Winston Jordan said “the issue is not whether we waited longer or not; the issue is whether there is a moral or other argument for this salary increase.”
Three reasons have been put forward by Jordan that seeks to justify why the salary increase was needed.

“There was an anomalous situation that we inherited in relation to the salary structures from the President coming right down. The second was that there wasn’t a Vice President structure in the past regime or in recent times so a salary scale had to be set for vice presidents.

“The third reason was that there are larger ministries and ministerial structures requiring greater responsibilities and so a salary scale had to be set to recognise the new responsibilities that have been given to these mega ministries that were created.”