Increases in public service pay are included in the 2021 Budget
Dear Editor,
Kaieteur News – Allow me space in your newspaper to respond to a mistake floating around on social media written by APNU + AFC first-time MP Juretha Fernandes, where he sought to discredit Vice President Dr.’s allegations. Bharrat Jagdeo that public servants would receive and pay increases.
In the Facebook VP post, he noted that there is over $ 10 billion under the heading “pay review” which provides for pay increases. In opposition, Fernandes is adamant that there is no mention of this heading in any of the three budget estimate volumes. He then concluded that “the 2021 budget did not provide for any increase, review or otherwise, of Public Servants’ pay and salaries. But the PPP must now find a way to repair such a serious omission in a bid to save their tainted public image. ”
Now here’s the facts:
1. Ms Fernandes is partially correct – those specific words do not appear in the budget estimates. What the MP should have known is that the line item 6141 referred to by the Vice President was changed from “payroll review” to “other employment costs” in 2014. As such, he should have examined this line to find out if money was budgeted for before coming to a conclusion.
Extracted from Budget 2014 Volume 1 estimates
NB Line item 6141 is only used in the Ministry of Finance budget. That is, no other Ministry or agency will allocate amounts under this line item. Permanent Secretaries and Heads of Budget Agencies etc. must request the amount necessary to facilitate salary increase payments by memorandum to the Finance Secretary.
2. Secondly, there was no omission – and no repair at all. In the Budget 2021 estimates, under the same line item 6141, $ 10,094,889,000 ie as correctly stated by the VP over $ 10 billion is budgeted for pay increases.
It is a sad situation when MPs, especially those who boast of their high intellectual ability, are unable to read and understand documents, in this case the budget, which they are expected to scrutinize.
Nevertheless, I hope that Ms Fernandes and the rest of her colleagues will read this letter and become more competent to act in their roles. More importantly, I hope that public servants will disregard the inaccurate information being published by the mischievous few.
Truly,
John Antonio Edghill