The Peoples Progressive Party (PPP) wants more to be done for Public servants this Christmas season. This sentiment was expressed by General Secretary of the party, Clement Rohee at a press conference held on Tuesday.
According to the former Security Minister, his party is also advocating for the reinstatement of the joint services end of year bonus as well.
Apart from this call, the General Secretary, also reminded of the 17 action areas which the opposition party has put to government in recent months, including the reinstatement of the $10,000 ‘Because we care ‘ cash grant for students, the reinstatement of water and electricity subsidies for senior citizens and the restoration of the Community Support Officers programme for hinterland residents.
Additionally, Rohee says the party is also in support of the most recent call from civil society for talks and a review of budget 2017.
This the GS says is despite President David Granger’s recent assertion that the opposition had not brought anything to the debate that would make government want to change position the budget.
“It’s okay for him to say that we haven’t brought anything new to the table, of course he has to defend his Finance Minister’s budget but now a new situation has arisen where stakeholders are calling for dialogue and these are key stakeholders…so the ball in back in the court of the government” Rohee said.
Budget 2017 has been met with much criticism from several factions of society and has even been described as anti-people by the opposition.
However much to the surprise of citizens on Friday last, at the close of the debate on Finance Minister, Winston Jordan, would have announced a one-off payout of $25,000 to public servants earning less than 500 thousand dollars per month.
