Disgruntled Soldiers question President’s selective salary adjustments for Joint Services

Dec 29, 2022 News

Kaieteur News – Members of the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) have expressed dissatisfaction with the Government’s decision to adjust the salaries for ranks at all levels of the Police, Prison and Fire Services, but only a selected few in the military.

The soldiers are questioning the methodology used by President Irfaan Ali who is also Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces. The group said just two categories of military personnel were selected for the salary adjustments. The soldiers who spoke to this newspaper under conditions of strict anonymity questioned the disparity in the Government’s decision. The soldiers said that President Ali adjusted salaries for members of the Police, from Constable to Commissioner, with the Fire Service also receiving benefits, “but for the Army he would have only adjusted salaries from Corporals to civilians. So from Sergeant up, no adjustment was made. We want to find out why,” one GDF member said.

“Members of the force are beginning to be disgruntled and it’s not a good look. You did all of this for the Police. You raised salaries for the Police plus give them bonus and you just gave us bonus alone and did not raise our salary. We want to know why there was no salary adjustment for the entire Guyana Defence Force.”

President Ali announced in November, salary adjustments for Public Servants with some 8,000 members of the Disciplined Services to benefit from January 1, 2023. Ranks and Officers at various levels within the Guyana Police Force as well as those within the Fire Service received pay increases, while the salaries of Recruits and Privates within the GDF were increased.

In announcing the pay increase for the GDF, President Ali said that Recruits would have their current minimum salary adjusted upwards from $94,485 to $100,000. Additionally, Recruits with five and more years’ experience will now receive a salary of no less than $100,000.

Privates will benefit from an 8.1 percent increase on their minimum salary moving it from $94,771 to $102,488. Privates with five to ten years’ experience will now receive a salary of no less than $110,000, and those with more than ten years’ experience will now receive a salary of no less than $115,000. Nothing was mentioned for Senior Members of the Force. Instead, at the GDF’s annual Christmas lunch, last Tuesday, President Ali told Officers that they would receive one-month bonus and that Government would provide free steel and cement to soldiers who were allocated house lots.

Calls were nonetheless made for President Ali to similarly revise upwards the salaries of the Guyana Prison Service and City Constabulary. In a letter to the Editor, the writer said that “members of the Guyana Prison Service and the City Constabulary work hard to ensure that law and order is maintained in our country, just like the other Disciplined Services. I will be very grateful if HE (President) can kindly grant us an increase in our salaries with conditions similar as those announced for the Guyana Police Force (GPF), Guyana Defence Force (GDF), and the Guyana Fire Service (GFS).”

In a statement shortly after President Ali’s salary announcements, Opposition Leader Aubrey Norton had described the President’s increase to the Police as “unacceptable.” He said that with the Government’s budget ballooning by nearly 50 percent this year, the increases that have been proposed across the different categories and ranks of Police Officers are unacceptable. He questioned why State Workers’ pay could not be increased further with the billions of dollars within the country. “The PPPC can stand up and say to the nation that a Police Officer with over ten (10) long years of experience should only be paid $115,000 dollars a month is unbelievable. Clearly, they do not respect the hard work that Policemen and women do every day in service of our nation,” he opined.