PEOPLE’S Progressive Party (PPP) Member of Parliament (MP) Bishop Juan Edghill is urging the Government to immediately increase the salaries of members of the Joint Services, given that they are not subject to wage negotiations through any union.During his 2016 Budget presentation on January 29, Finance Minister Winston Jordan had announced that Government was awaiting the end of the collective bargaining process to announce any increase in public servants’ salaries and wages for 2016. The move was lauded collectively by unions representing public servants in all sectors.

However, in his budget presentation on Wednesday evening in the National Assembly, Edghill called on the Government to immediately increase the salaries of persons serving in the Joint Services, since they are not represented by any union. What this translates to is that any agreement reached by the unions and the Government, the Joint Services will not serve as beneficiaries, since they are not unionised.

The PPP MP, who formerly served as junior Minister of Finance, then recommended that the eastern side of the House foot these increases in salaries for the Joint Services by reducing the extent to which gold is smuggled out of Guyana.

Just recently, Minister of Natural Resources, Raphael Trotman, revealed that between 50 and 60 per cent of the gold produced in Guyana is smuggled out of the country. This represented approximately 15,000 ounces of gold being smuggled on a weekly basis.

All these conditions existed under the PPP/C Government, which only last year was voted out of office.

“If the minister is able to stop the smuggling of these 15,000 ounces of gold per week, and he gets the royalty of 5 per cent, he will garner US$39M off of royalty, and we will have $8B plus to pay policemen, firemen, soldiers and prison officers,” Edghill told the National Assembly.