Public Service needs to be reorganised - Chris Ram

Public Service needs to be reorganised – Chris Ram

Dec 18, 2009 News

“6% increase is hopelessly low”

By Fareeza Haniff
Persons in receipt of salaries through the Public Service Commission have received a ‘hopelessly low’ 6 per cent increase by the government.
“Despite the presence of six policemen at a road block, you still have a policeman stopping you and say, ‘boss leave something nah.’ You still have government agencies that are corrupt to the core…part of the corruption stems from the fact that the wages and salaries are just too low.” This is according to Chartered Accountant, Christopher Ram, who told members of the media yesterday that the public sector is facing a challenge where there is now a bloated army of contract employees.
“Every minister wants their own team of PR people; everyone has to have so many drivers…. you saw the other day, the head of one of the security forces has three vehicles.”
He revealed that the salaries paid to contract employees in Guyana amounts to $3.2 billion excluding benefits, while some of them get a 22.5 per cent gratuity every six months, tax-free.
“There is one public service employee whose tax rate has been set by the Office of the President at 20 per cent…there is no tax rate of 20 per cent, so we have a very distorted public sector wage bill,” Ram explained.
He noted that if the public service was to be reorganised and there is a ‘cut’ in the number of ministries, then there would be a better public service. “You have three political persons in the Ministry of Tourism…you have a Director of Sports, a Minister and a parliamentary secretary…why do we need all those people?…Each one of them has to have so many vehicles, you have to have so many support staff. It is unnecessary…you have Ministers who were fired many years ago and are on government payroll as contractors.”
Ram explained that if some of the same money was to be reallocated to the public service, then that sector could be reformed, as it can then attract better and less corrupt individuals.
According to Ram, the Office of the President has 95 consultants and 54 temporary staff out of a total 201, while even the Public Service Ministry itself and the Public Service Commission has a huge number of contract employees. The Chartered Accountant explained that when the government is told to reduce the tax rates, it would question as to where the administration would get the money from.
But he noted that the answer should be to cut the expenditure side of the budget, as the same level of inefficiencies does not have to be maintained.

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Public Service needs to be reorganised – Chris Ram

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