Latest update December 21st, 2024 1:52 AM
Opposition MPs will be paid salary increase
…Parliament bound to make payments by Ministerial Order
Despite the cries, protestations and claims that the opposition will not be taking a salary increase, all members of the political opposition—the Peoples’ Progressive Party (PPP) – will in fact be paid, the increases when
Parliament Building
Parliament pays its salaries this month.
Kaieteur News consulted a senior official at Parliament Buildings—the authority that is responsible for making salary payments to Members of Parliament—and was told that the body is bound to make the payments taking into account the Ministerial Order that authorized the increases.
Speaking to this publication on the condition of anonymity, it was explained that under the relevant legislation governing the salaries of a Minister and other Members of Parliament, the subject Minister is permitted to making the Order for the increase in salaries.
It was explained to this publication that when Parliament meets tomorrow, the Order will be laid in the House, but this is only a formality since the Order has already been brought into force by virtue of its publication in the Official Gazette.
The Parliament will be making the payments this month, in keeping with the Ministerial Order, signed and Gazetted by Minister of State, Joseph Harmon.
The salary increases were published in the Official Gazette of September 25.
This publication was told that opposition Members of Parliament simply cannot say they will not be accepting an increase in salary and that Parliament will abide with its wishes.
The Parliament is bound to act in accordance with the Ministerial Order, dictating that increases be paid to each member of the Executive and Legislature ranging from as little as five per cent to 50 per cent.
This publication was told that there is a mechanism in place to challenge the salary increases.
The Standing Orders of the Parliament do provide for a motion to be tabled to challenge the increases.
This publication was told however, that in order to challenge the Ministerial Order, it will first have to be laid after which any member of the assembly will have 21 days within which to move a motion to either amend the Order or annul it altogether.
The motion if successfully tabled and approved will still have to be debated and voted on in the National Assembly.
The coalition A Partnership for National Unity plus Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) Government commands 33 of the 65 seats in the National Assembly with the PPP holding 32.
The PPP has signaled its intention to challenge the salary increase by way of a motion but given the voting strength of the Government, its successful passage is unlikely.
Ever since the Gazetting of the Ministerial Order was made public, there has been much public debate over the salary increases leading the opposition PPP to publicly declare that its MPs would not be taking the increase.
The PPP, yesterday, by way of a public missive indicated that its members have in fact received their pay slip from the Parliament Office for the month of October 2015 which indicates that they have been paid salary increases.
The PPP is adamant that the payments were made notwithstanding the fact the Leader of the Opposition, Bharrat Jagdeo, stated publicly nearly two weeks ago that they will not be accepting this increase in their salaries.
The party believes that the Ministerial Order is not in force since it has not been tabled in the House as yet.
The PPP said that Government, by hastily paying these increases in salaries to themselves, is clearly subverting the role of the National Assembly, violating the Standing Orders and contravening the law.
“All of this is designed to defeat the PPP/C’s efforts to challenge these unconscionable salary increases in the National Assembly…The decision to pay themselves these salary increases was made in similarly clandestine circumstances,” the PPP said.
The party insists that it will be pursuing every other available avenue to annul and reverse “these reprehensible salary increases which we now realize have been paid in violation of the law and Parliamentary norms and practices.”
Finance Minister Winston Jordan had, in explaining the rationale behind the increase, spoken to resolving the anomalies that existed, catering for the increased ministerial workload and catering to the posts of Vice Presidents.
The Finance Minister insisted that the salary increases were necessary and justifiable.
He said, “There are about 13 senior ministers who got the 50 percent increases.”
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