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Supporting Guysuco impacts public servants pay hike

May 28, 2016 News

Finance Minister Winston Jordan, on Monday, stated that had not the government injected resources into projects like the Skeldon Factory and the Enmore Estate, it would have “comfortably” met claims for public servants’ salary increases, among others.
“Had we not to divert these resources we would have comfortably met other claims, inclusive of public servants—addressing definitively— public servant salary,” he said at a Ministry of Finance press conference.
The Minister stated that the transfer of funds into various projects by the government is not divorced from increasing public servants’ salaries. “They are not divorced… it is an economy we are running,” he added.
Two months ago, Jordan was chided by the Guyana Public Service Union (GPSU) for stating that the workers should not look forward to significant salary increases anytime soon. Jordan had indicated that the workers would receive a “top-up” to their salaries but hope for attractive pay raise should be tempered.
According to an International Monetary Fund (IMF) report Guyana should be mindful of its increases in wages in the face of its current economic challenges.
However, the GPSU stated that Jordan’s statement was premature given that they had not even negotiated with the union on probable increases.
Jordan said that although $50B was set aside for wages and salaries increases, the money was not “earmarked” for salary raises alone. He cited that finances need to be bailed out for annual leave, promotions and filling vacant positions in various government organizations.
He stated that the money was poured into the sugar and rice industries as an emergency situation.
Jordan explained that a hefty sum of money was poured into the Skeldon Sugar estate by the previous government—some US$200M. “And where is Skeldon today? Nowhere and generally as prices have imploded, GuySuCo also imploded…” he said.
He said that the current government had stepped in as a matter of urgency and bailed the ailing Corporation out by injecting $12B, “At a time when Skeldon was meant to be the sugar factory that was supposed to keep sugar sweet.”
He said that Guyana has an expensive sugar industry that is unable to compete internationally and so the industry will continue to weigh heavily on the budget.
“Today, almost 75% has been transferred and as you know El Nino and whatever else has transpired to reduce crop by almost 30,000 tonnes,” he lamented, asserting that it means that the industry would be engaging the government again for more money because the $9B would have been based on specific projections.
“Sugar is not what it used to be; it is probably not as sweet and sugar has to go under severe structural transformation to survive,” he added, noting that rice depends heavily on a premium market for which heavy expansion has also been done.
Recently, Jordan had indicated that the workers had received more than a five percent increase from the government.

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