The Guyana Public Service Union (GPSU) has rejected Government’s final offer of a one per cent to 10 per cent and as it contemplates its next move.
Winston Jordan
The administration has decided to go ahead and arbitrarily make the payments to public servants from next month. This was confirmed on Friday by Finance Minister Winston Jordan who said that the directive has been made to make the retroactive payments from next month.
This will mean that public servants will on their October pay-cheques be receiving their increases for that month, in addition to the bulk accumulated amount retroactive to January 2016.
Minister Jordan made the disclosure as he engaged the media corps and insisted that it was all Government could sustainably afford at the time.
He used the opportunity to also respond to critics that had pointed to the billions the administration said it had found outside of the Consolidated Fund that could have been used to pay public servants a livable wage.
According to Minister Jordan, that money was in fact used to make a one-off payment to public servants last year.
He said a one-off payment was all that could have been made at the time, since the monies were not part of any recurrent revenues.
Speaking on the retroactive increases to be paid in the coming month, Minister Jordan was quick to point out that there has been an improvement “on what used to take place in the past.”
He explained that while the salary increases used to be paid retroactive to January of any given year, it was in the past tabulated based on the salary a person was receiving at the end of the previous year.
“So if you weren’t on the (pay)roll on December 31 of the previous year you would not have enjoyed the benefit of any salary increase for the current year…We have tried as hard as possible not to allow that to happen,” said Minister Jordan.
He told the media, “if you came on, on or before August 31 of this year you will enjoy the salary increase….The salary increases will be in the October salaries, so there are a number of improvements there that perhaps people don’t know about.”
Sustainability/impact
Speaking directly about the sustainability of salary increases in light of the demands and what has in fact been offered and now arbitrarily paid out, Minister Jordan dismissed the notion that the wage bill will be hiked to the point where Government could not maintain it.
As it relates to Government’s offer which it is proceeding to effect, Minister Jordan said, “based on our projection of revenue and so on, it will be sustained.”
The Finance Minister was unable to provide a figure on what the total impact of the payout will be on the government wages bill since government is responsible for paying those also not considered traditional public servants, namely ranks of the disciplined services and a range of semi-autonomous agencies such as the Guyana Revenue Authority, among others.
Jordan vs Jagdeo
Jordan also used the opportunity to respond to exhortations fielded by former President Bharrat Jagdeo.
Jordan said Jagdeo has claimed, “we were saying all these accounts were being held off line….we could take those and make the payments of the salary increase.”
He was at the time making reference to the numerous accounts holding billions of dollars that were not being held in the Consolidated Fund when the coalition A partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) took office in May 2015.
According to Jordan, “we did say that we found monies in various accounts and we transferred them to the Consolidated Fund, we used some of those monies to make the pay the one-off payment that you had in December.”
The Finance Minister was adamant that “every increase that we make has to be sustained for the next year and the next year and the next year…has to be sustained.”
He said too that persons must also be cautious in their thinking that any growth in revenues can be put towards increased salaries.
