LEADER of the Alliance For Change (AFC) Nigel Hughes, on Friday, announced big payouts for members of the Joint Services if his party is to assume office, despite his party previously cutting bonuses and reducing incentives during the coalition’s tenure in office from 2015-2020.
Hughes highlighted these promises during the party’s press conference, on Friday. At the top of the list, he said that members of the military will have a starting salary of some $250,000 along with “significant” salary increases.
Added to this, he noted that the AFC plans to give, at the end of the year, two months tax-free bonus, while GDF civilian workers will receive a one-month tax-free bonus.
Also among Hughes’ plans is a $50,000 tax-free bonus for persons stationed at Guyana’s borders and a $100,000 annual cash grant for all members of the Joint Services.
While all of these plans were announced, Hughes made no mention of how these big payouts would be financed.
Further, he stated that his party wants to establish housing developments specifically for the Joint Services, which he said would be placed across the country.
Additionally, he said that if persons are to suffer any permanent disability while serving in Guyana in any arm of the Joint Services, they will be entitled to compensation to the tune of $5 million.
In 2015, when the AFC entered office as part of APNU+AFC, the tax-free year-end bonus, which members of the Joint Services enjoyed, was discontinued.
The annual bonus, which was an initiative of the People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C) in the early 2000s, and was restored by the PPP/C administration when it assumed office in August 2020.