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Emerging Oil and Gas Sector…Govt. must ensure that public, private workers are paid equally – T&T’s former Energy Minister
The former Trinidad and Tobago Energy Minister, Kevin Ramnarine, last week delivered a lecture at the Le Meridian Pegasus Hotel, Kingston, Georgetown, on Guyana’s emerging ‘oil and gas sector.
Trinidad and Tobago’s former Energy Minister, Kevin Ramnarine.
Kaieteur News caught up with him prior to his engagement where he offered some suggestions as he drew from the experience of his homeland with regards to the Oil and Gas sector.
The former Minister, now Lecturer at the Arthur Lok Jack Graduate School of Business, went through some dos and don’ts which in his opinion, will see Guyana advancing on the path of becoming one of the richest countries in the Western Hemisphere.
Relating some of the challenges being faced in the Trinidad and Tobago’s Energy Sector, Ramnarine said that a situation exists where some of the highest paid workers in the Public Sector are constantly being “raided” by the Private Sector in order to attract the most qualified people.
“The highest paid people are Private Energy Sector and the lowest paid people are in the State or Government sector. What that means is that every Monday morning, the Ministry of Energy loses its best professionals.
“So you have a situation where the Ministry is constantly being ‘raided’ by the Private Sector because it (Public Sector) can’t keep people because you’re paying four and five times less than what is being paid in the Private Sector.
“So I think of necessity is that whatever Guyana does, you have to ensure that the public servants are paid equal to the people in the private sector or better or you will end up in a situation where the strongest people are in the private sector and the weakest in the government sector – you need that balance.”
Ramnarine also spoke of the possibility of direct payments to the population.
“I have made recommendations that might be a bit controversial but I’ll say it anyways…In Alaska they have a system of direct payments to the population. Every citizen living there gets a payment – an equal payment every year from the government. It works out to be US$ 2000- plus but it is one way of equally distributing some of the resource – provided that the beneficiaries are living in the country.”
The former Minister also recommended that the Guyana Government move in the direction of providing free tertiary education to citizens.
“One thing that went well for Trinidad is subsidising tertiary education which is still free and that has created a lot of qualified people to the point where the country exports experienced people to oil and gas industries in other countries and is also one way of investing the oil and gas dividends into the development of the people of the country.”
He also spoke about the importance of getting right, the management of the Industrial Relations Climate around the energy sector.
“One of the big mistakes we made in Trinidad is that we have not managed the Industrial Relations Climate around the energy sector well.
“It is very acrimonious; it’s very combative and that has only led to a number of obstacles and inefficiencies. I think that you have to get that Industrial Relations Climate working properly,” he said.
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