Public Servants’ pay in lieu of leave, a financial drain on national coffers

Public Servants’ pay in lieu of leave, a financial drain on national coffers – Harmon

Mar 03, 2017 News

The deliberate accumulation of annual leave which is later cashed in by Public Servants, has become a major source of “financial drain” for the administration.
This assertion was made by Minister of State, Joseph Harmon during a Post-Cabinet Press Briefing yesterday.
The Minister was at the time responding to questions about the rationale for government asking James Singh – the head of the country’s premier illicit drug-combating agency, the Customs Anti Narcotics Unit (CANU) – to proceed on annual leave.
A question was posed to the Minister whether the massive drug bust a few days ago, would have spurred the decision.
Harmon said that it was purely coincidental that Singh was asked to proceed on 42 days annual leave at a time when “several things are happening”.
The Minister continued that several other officials were also asked to utilise their leave.
“What we found was in the past, people were accumulating leave and when the leave became so much, it became difficult to send them off for all of this leave. They then ask for pay in lieu of leave and this was a major source of financial drain on the administration. So we’ll ask that public officers who have leave, that they apply in the year when the leave becomes due and that they take it in that year,” Harmon said.
He noted also, that the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Public Infrastructure, Balraj Balram, and several officials at other levels in the government, will also proceed on leave.
According to previous reports, Major General (ret’d) Michael Atherly will be heading CANU.
The Ministry of the Presidency said that this has been communicated to the Minister of Public Security, Khemraj Ramjattan, who is the person responsible for CANU.
Major General Atherly was responsible for leading the review of the National Drug Strategy Master Plan 2014-2018. This review led to the development of the National Drug Strategy Master Plan 2016-2020, which was launched last December.
Atherly who was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant on May 20th 1971, was appointed Chief of Staff in April 2000.

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