Prime Minister, Moses Nagamootoo has described the salary increases granted to Presidents and Ministers between 1998 and 2014 as “unconscionable and utterly disgraceful”.
His comment came in relation to figures disclosed by Minister of Finance, Winston Jordan in the National Assembly Monday afternoon (January 30, 2017) in his response to questions asked by Region 10 representative of APNU+AFC in Parliament, Jermaine Figueira.
Figueira asked the Minister of Finance “What was the percentage increase in wages and salaries given by the Government of Guyana to public servants for each year from 1998 to 2014 (and) What was the percentage increase in wages and salaries given by the Government of Guyana to government Ministers for each year from 1998 to 2014?” He also asked what the percentage increase in wages and salaries given by the Government of Guyana to the President of the Co-operative Republic of Guyana for each year from 1998 to 2014.
It was then that Jordan disclosed that the salary increases granted to Presidents and Ministers between 1998 and 2014 amounted to over 386% and 220% respectively.
This is while the total salary increases for public servants for the period amounts to 164.7%, mainly in single digit increments he said. However, Minister Jordan revealed that the salaries of the then PPP ministers of government increased, over the same period, by a whopping 220.5%, some 55% more than the public servants’ increase.
The Finance Minister said the salary of the president, during the same period, increased by a mammoth 386.5%.
“It is utterly disgraceful that the post-Jagan Cabinet bureaucracy grabbed an average 300% salary hike during 1998 and 2014,” Prime Minister Nagamootoo said.
“They ‘helped’ the poor public servants over this period by giving a total of 164%, mostly in 5% doses but in 17 years, the PPP Ministers were paid a more than handsome 220% salary increase…The Presidents helped themselves to the full trough by taking 386% increase in salary. Now we know how fat these cats had become in political office,” he added.
In 2006 alone the then President Bharrat Jagdeo was given an enormous 273% salary increase while in the same year ministers benefitted from an 89.5% increase.
The largest single increase public servants received was in 1999 when a 31% increased was granted.
In 2000 a 26% increase was provided but for the next 14 years, only on two occasions were increases in the double digits.
In eight of those years, the public servants’ salary increase was 5%, including in 2006 when the President and his ministers received an immense ‘top up’.
In 2015, just months after assuming office, the APNU+AFC Government gave itself a 50% increase which saw much criticism from the public, especially when it could not have given public servants even half of that.
SALARY INCREASES UNDER THE PPP/C GOVT as given by Finance Minister, Winston Jordan.
1998 – 2014
YEAR PUBLIC SERVANTS MINISTERS PRESIDENT
% % %
1998 13.5 13.5 13.5
1999 31.06 12 –
2000 26.66 25 25
2001 5.5 5.5 –
2002 5 – –
2003 5 5 5
2004 5 5 5
2005 7 7 7
2006 5 89.5 273
2007 9 9 9
2008 10 15 15
2009 6 6 6
2010 5 5 5
2011 8 8 8
2012 5 5 5
2013 5 5 5
2014 13 5 5
TOTALS 164.72% 220.5% 386.5%
