The Disciplined Services bonus

Nov 23, 2018 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

Poor President Granger! He has more problems with his government than he has with his health. At least his medical condition is treatable. The same cannot be said of his government.
During the period that the President was in Cuba, a number of ridiculous statements were made by various Ministers. It is shocking to believe some of the things that were said both during and after the local government election campaign.
Better was expected from some of the persons making those statements. Their statements reveal a low opinion of the public for those statements to have muttered; they were absurd and far from convincing.
One Minister of the government told a political party rally that the reason why the PPPC gave an annual one-month salary bonus to the Disciplined Services was in order to influence them into taking action against the opponents of the government.
The Minister was quoted as saying, “You know why they were trying to buy off our people in the military and in the police. They were trying to suppress us so that when they call on them, they will go.”
This quote has not been denied. It is one of the most nonsensical statements made in recent times.
First of all, it implies that the PPPC was trying to buy-out the Disciplined Services to do the PPPC’s dirty work. But if the PPPC wanted to suppress its opponents, why would it have to pay one month’s bonus to the Disciplined Services, all of which fall under command-style management?
All the PPPC had to do was to control the upper brass of the Disciplined Services and to issue the relevant instructions to those likely to follow their orders, as was done in the past under the PNC in Guyana, and as was done in most Latin American authoritarian regimes. There was no need to pay the entire Disciplined Services a bonus just to get the coercive arms of the State to suppress the enemies of the government.
Burnham did not have to pay any one-month bonus. The army and the police and others did his government and his party’s dirty work. He used a religious cult, among others, to do his dirty work.
A few weeks ago, a report appeared in the newspaper about a once popular bus driver whose body was found outside the Georgetown Hospital. He apparently had become homeless and was forced to live on the streets and was often seen begging on Regent Street.
He was highly popular as a minibus driver. What many persons did not know is that before he turned to driving minibuses, he was a thug for the ruling PNC during the Burnham years. He used to go around boasting about breaking up opposition political meetings. He was never a member of the Disciplined Services.
The point is that there is no need for any government to have to pay a one-month salary bonus to the Disciplined Services in order to suppress or even harass political opponents.
A columnist of this newspaper was assaulted. The persons charged were not from the Disciplined Services. A neophyte political activist was killed. No one from the Disciplined Services has been charged with that offence.
Even if the ruling coalition feels that rogue elements of the police may have been involved in political repression under the PPPC, this is no reason why the PPPC would want to pay the GDF and the Prison Services a bonus, since the PPPC has long been suspicious of the GDF’s ties to the now ruling PNCR.
The question, which should be answered is not why the PPPC paid the annual bonus to the Disciplined Services for years. The question is, why was it discontinued?
The reason given was that it was unfair to give it to the Disciplined Services and not give it to the rest of the public service. By the same reasoning, it would be unfair to pay some Ministers a 50% salary increase and not pay the public servants or the Disciplined Services the same amount.
It is all well and good to ensure that everyone benefits from a bonus. But you do not reduce what someone was receiving because someone else was not receiving the same.
Not only was the bonus not paid to the Disciplined Services in 2017, but the public servants did not get any bonus as well.
Members of the Disciplined Services are entitled to that one-month salary increase, because even though it was granted discretionarily, it has, over time, become a legitimate expectation.
The PPPC has called for the bonus to be restored. There is no reason why it should not.
Budget 2019 should reinstate the bonus. If the government still feels that it is discriminatory, it should be paid to all public sector workers, including Ministers.

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The Disciplined Services bonus

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