House approves Hammie’s “pension” bill

Mar 10, 2017 News

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Former Prime Minister Hamilton Green will now be paid a pension commensurate with the office he once held between 1985 and 1992.
The Bill was presented by Minister of Finance Winston Jordan yesterday in the National

Assembly. Green will now be provided pension, benefits and other facilities to enable him to live in keeping with the high office he occupied.
During his presentation Jordan said that Green became the fourth Prime Minister of Guyana on August 6, 1985 and served until October 9, 1992.
He recounted that when the Bill was first introduced it attracted unnecessary controversy, particularly from the Guyana Human Rights Association and Transparency International Guyana Inc.
According to Jordan, it took a very incisive commentary by Kaieteur News Editor-in-Chief, Adam Harris, in Kaieteur News November 27, 2016 edition to put the issue in some proper perspective.
Further, Jordan backed up his justification by quoting an article written by former Member of Parliament, Henry Jeffrey, in Stabroek News who said, “As a matter of principle I do not believe that someone’s pension should be encumbered by all manner of emotionally subjective characterisation.”
Jordan urged his fellow members not to besmirch the character of Green and to direct their focus on principle and not personality. The Finance Minister directed the Assembly to the Pensions, President, Parliamentary and Special Officers Act 1969 as amended in 2011.
“Therein it states, 1. Every person who having held the office of President on or after the 16th of December 1966 or who having held office of Prime Minister on or after 22nd December 1965 ceases at any time after such a date to be President or Prime Minister shall be paid a pension under this Act with effect from the date he ceases to be President or Prime Minister as the case may be and subject to subsection two, such a pension shall be continued to be paid during the lifetime of that person.”
Further, Jordan said that Section four of the Act states that the pension for a former President or Prime Minister shall be 7/8 of the highest annual rate of salary paid to such persons at any time as President or Prime Minister as the case may be or $204,000 per annum whichever is greater.
The Minister explained that at the time Green demitted office in 1992 he was given a calculated pension of $21,114 based on a salary of $32,174. He said that this figure had increased annually in line with announced increase in pension for other categories of retired persons.
“As of January 2017 Mr Green was in receipt of a pension of $165,868. Thus even though Mr Green’s pension had been increased by nearly 700 per cent in 25 years it was still equated to the monthly salary of, for example an Administrative Officer or Community Development Officer in the public service.”
He said that his research showed that Green’s pension was erroneously calculated for the past 25 years. Jordan added that the then People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C) government removed the pension and benefits of the president were removed from the Pensions, President, Parliamentary and Special Officers Act and catered for in a newly created Act styled Pensions, President, Parliamentary and Special Officers Act 2004.
“It is that act which provides for pension to ex-presidents to be calculated as 7/8 not of their last salary but of the current President’s salary. Having accomplished this objective, the next move in this cunningly contrived manoeuvre was to massively increase the salary of the President. Thus, between 2006 when he was re-elected and 2007, now Honourable member Bharrat Jagdeo’s salary rose astronomically from $223,783 in 2006 to $908,784 in 2007 an increase of 306 per cent.”
He said by 2011 Jagdeo’s salary grew by a further 25 per cent to $1,630,935. Today, he said that ex-Presidents Jagdeo, Samuel Hinds and Donald Ramotar each receive a monthly pension of $1,513,406 which is nine times the pension of former Prime Minister Hamilton Green. Also he said that Jagdeo, Hinds and Ramotar receive benefits which Green is not afforded.
Meanwhile, Opposition Member of Parliament, Anil Nandlall said that if there is any discrepancy with the pension Green currently receives, then a package can be created to pay Green all of the money he should have received and is entitled to in the future, rather than trying to achieve the objective through a specific Bill.
“To bring this and call it a Pension Bill, is simply wrong. If you want to give Hamilton Green a package and you want to bring it here for us to baptise it, well say so, don’t call it a Pension Bill because it is not a pension Bill. Because Mr Green’s last salary has nothing to do with the pension he is getting here. The pension that he is getting here is connected to the current Prime Minister.”
Following presentations by a number of speakers, capitalising on its majority presence in the Assembly, the A Partnership for National Unity and Alliance for Change government voted for the Bill to be passed.

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