Politics and Honest Wages

Aug 19, 2020 Editorial

It is a cycle that Guyana goes through, ever so often, the exposure of salaries and perks of the politically favoured employed by the machinery of the state, met either by expressions of righteous indignation or haughty entitlement depending on whichever tribe one happens to support, or whether one is a beneficiary or not.

For those receiving the largesse, the rationalization of the entitlement is virtually justification by numbers, so rote and unoriginal it is. One invariable excuse, for example, by the expatriates living high on the hog here is usually one of a conjectural sacrifice of even more conjectural wages in the developed world so as to return and contribute to the development of Guyana at great personal discomfort. Of course none of this is ever accompanied by actual proof of said sacrifice, no letter of regrettable resignation from some Fortune 500 company, no pictures of the final day at the abandoned Manhattan corner office for a cubbyhole at some musty ministry.

Then there is of course, for those resident here, the automatic entitlement by qualification and education – it is never against the backdrop of political favour and whether or not the special jobs where competitively awarded. For the entitled arguing their entitlement, words like “nepotism” and “sinecure” are incidental at best, if they exist at all. In its worst form, we have the children of the political elite, given state jobs that they would not have otherwise competitively secured, what one might refer to as legacy appointments, passionately arguing their right to employment, regardless of course of whether the work engaged in actually moves the country forward, as opposed to securing partisan political interests, or whether on an objective, level playing field, those jobs would not have gone to the more talented.

Were this a more homogenous society, the recurring practice of politicians using the state machinery to provide dishonest wages for dishonest work to their friend and family would have been bad enough. In a society that has been defined by ethnically based partisan politics, this sort of thing lies at the epicenter of our racial zero-sum game. The almost seamless intertwining of kinship and corruption has become par for the course of our political gamesmanship, with successive administrations peopling the public service with party faithful and then crying foul when the inevitable exposure and culling begins. And as always, those who continue to lose are the people at the bottom.

Both PPP/C and APNU+AFC administrations have simultaneously argued that they cannot sustainably raise salaries for low-level staff while justifying super salaries for the politically favoured. And while the term “super salary” always seems to conveniently escape definition for those benefitting from super salaries, a workable definition is that a super salary is any remuneration that is significantly higher than that awarded for similar work based on similar qualifications within the standard public service salary structure.

The facile argument has been made that a developing country like Guyana can only attract or retain the brightest talents if a suitable remuneration is offered and that argument on the surface is sound. However, the criteria cannot begin and end at remuneration. As warrants a professional public service, transparency, context and competitiveness should be attached to the award of super salaries. This means that the jobs should be openly advertised so that all competent persons can apply. Secondly, super salaries should only be justified with regard to specific necessary technical competence in a particular area – if the job is not critical within a specific context, or sector, then it should not exist. Thirdly, and finally, such posts should be awarded on merit, not on party or familial affiliation. System nepotism and discriminatory hiring practices drive far more qualified people out of the public service than relatively low salaries.

We need to fix our public service salary structure, yes, but in such a way that all boats rise equally, and where people are guaranteed honest wages for honest work, regardless of their political affiliation.