Fixed salaries for Ministers and MPs – Prime Minister

Oct 28, 2017 News

-says govt. trying to meet concerns of teachers

Ministers of Government and Members of Parliament were not in receipt of an increase for 2016 and 2017 and they certainly will not be eligible for an increase in 2018. This disclosure was yesterday made by Prime Minister, Moses Nagamootoo.
According to the Prime Minister, “I believe it was the right decision to give Ministers and Members of Parliament a ‘top up’ in the beginning, but not a single cent for 2016 or 2017, and I can tell you this, Ministers and Members of Parliament will not receive a cent more for 2018.”
Even before completing a year in office, the APNU+AFC Government announced a 50 percent increase for Ministers and Members of Parliament.
But according to Prime Minister Nagamootoo, based on his knowledge, moves have been made to fix and adjust a salary for these levels of officials.
Nagamootoo’s utterance in this regard was forthcoming as he weighed in on the remuneration concerns of public school teachers that have been gaining immense national attention in recent days. The Prime Minister was at the time speaking at the Ministry of Education’s 2017 National Awards Ceremony held at the National Cultural Centre.
He disclosed that “we will have to start distributing the small goodies that we have to those who deserve that, and we will give consideration to teachers, but they must be patient and allow us to see methods by which we can raise revenues, because if you have no revenue, you can distribute nothing.”
But according to the Prime Minister, he can easily relate to the concerns of the teachers since he has lived the life of a teacher.
He, moreover, added, “I know teachers have huge concerns and our government has been trying to meet those concerns…I was a teacher, my wife was a lecturer at the Cyril Potter College of Education and we struggled to be where we were and where we have come.”
As part of government’s efforts to improve the standard of living, he revealed that in the last 18 months, efforts were made to increase the minimum wage by 51 percent.
Just recently, government announced an increase for public servants. This move will see the minimum wage moving to $60,000 and essentially moving the minimum wage from $55,555.
Based on this announcement, public servants earning between $55,555 and $99,999 would receive an increase of eight per cent, while a six per cent increase has been approved for persons earning $100,000 to $299,999.
Those who earn between $300,000 and $499,999 will receive a five per cent increase, while those earning $500,000 to $699,999 are in line to receive a four per cent increase.
Those making $700,000 to $799,999 will receive a two per cent increase. For those earning $800,000 to $1M, a 0.5 per cent increase has been offered.
But according to the Prime Minister, “We wish we could do more. The minimum wage of $60,000 [can’t] buy quite a lot of things, but in my time I worked for $60 a month when I was a teacher – equivalent to US$30 a month…Today it’s about US$300 or there about, not enough, but we have to take things incrementally and hope for the best.”
Optimistic about Guyana’s future, the Prime Minister related, “We are looking at a Guyana that has great prospects and we can become very rich if we manage our resources in oil and gas properly, and we distribute it to all of our peoples equitably.”
It is for this reason, Nagamootoo said “I can say this today – that while we are trying to give more to those who are at the bottom….to him that had not more should be given; we are starting from the bottom.”

1 thoughts on “Fixed salaries for Ministers and MPs – Prime Minister”

Muhammad Raoof October 28, 2017 at 10:04 am

Ministers should not get a RAISE for the next twenty years…based on the “self imposed” RAISE guven as soon as the Cialation got into iffice.

secondly..comparing the salaries of PS today to yesteryear is like comparing mango and oranges.

The value of the GY dollar is nothing to brag about…