— citizens react, recall Coalition Cabinet awarded themselves 50 per cent salary increase on entering office
— gave public servants pittance in comparison

THE A Partnership For National Unity + Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) has come in for criticism for pouring cold water on the government’s seven per cent across-the-board salary hike for public servants.

Several citizens took to social media to ridicule the main parliamentary opposition party for statements they made with regard to the salary increase.

The Coalition in a statement said, “They [public servants] deserve better and in comparison, they got better under the APNU+AFC administration,” in reaction to the announcement made by Senior Minister in the Office of the President with responsibility for Finance, Dr. Ashni Singh on Thursday last.

The claims by the Coalition, however, did not sit well with some persons on social media platform, facebook.

Sally Jones wrote that she is “still trying to remember what APNU gave … when they were in office” while, Dwight Darrel noted “so why they [APNU+AFC] didn’t give 50 per cent five years ago” and Anesha Alli responded by saying “just wondering how much per cent these workers get under PNC.”

Other citizens drew comparison to when the APNU+AFC was in office and granted their government ministers and other officials a 50 per cent increase on their salaries, just a few months after they assumed office in 2015.

“When the APNU+AFC were in office they didn’t think about the public servants, all they think was about them selfs [sic], they give themselves 50 per cent as soon as the get into office. What happen to last year, you were in office 2020, no raise for them public servants,” Feroze Punai wrote, while Lawrence Jaisingh shared similar sentiments.

Isaac Dallo also reminded of then junior Social Protection Minister Keith Scott labelling teachers as “selfish and uncaring” in 2018 after a major strike by teachers who took to the streets to protest for almost two weeks because of the then government proposed amount for salary increases.

The seven per cent retroactive pay hike announced by the People’s Progressive Party/Civic Government will be paid to public servants, including teachers, members of the Disciplined Services, constitutional officeholders, and government pensioners and will benefit over 20,000 persons.

In addition to the pay hike, $400 million has been set aside for a special 2021 payout to frontline workers in the health sector, who Dr. Singh reminded, continue to face extenuating circumstances in the daily discharge of their duties, as the country and the world continue to battle the ravages of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The measures are in addition to a slew of measures the PPP/C Government has implemented since assuming office on August 2, 2020, to help cushion the effects of COVID-19, the recent catastrophic flooding and other unprecedented economic burdens citizens faced.

The President Dr. Irfaan Ali-led government has so far implemented the COVID-19 cash grant of $25,000 per household, which resulted in $7.5 billion distributed to families across all 10 of the country’s administrative regions and the $19,000 grant for children attending public as well as private schools.

Additionally, pensioners and persons were given a one-off $25,000 cash grant, while $200 million was provided in electricity credits to households that met a certain criterion and $7.6 billion in flood-relief support.