With government seeking to reduce its fiscal deficit by $76 million, many are suggesting that the proposed five percent salary cut of public sector workers should be restricted to ministers, permanent secretaries and senior government management.
Prime Minister Kenny Anthony has labelled that suggestion as “misguided,” stating that such a wage cut would bring the smallest reduction in expenditure since salaries of the top brass of the government only account for one percent of total expenditure.
Civil servants salaries account for 31 percent; teachers 20 percent; public service pensioners 19 percent; police 10 percent fire officers three percent; and nurses two percent, Dr. Anthony said during an address to the nation on Tuesday night (June 10).
Correctional officers salaries account for one percent while doctors and “others” take up three percent. Other, according to him, refers to individuals working on projects, members of parliament, judges, magistrates, district registrars, special police, officers in the electoral department, and consultants.
The prime minister noted that public officers have received salary increases of up to 39.5 percent between 1997 and 2013 and that the salaries of ministers had not changed since 1998.
“This is why every Grade 19 public officer, or everyone at the level of deputy permanent secretary, currently makes over $10,000 annually more than a minister. That gap gets much wider when you compare the salaries of ministers and permanent secretaries. So the suggestion that by taking a bigger chunk out of the salaries of ministers or reducing the number of ministers we can solve or help solve our fiscal problem is at best misguided and at worst, innumeracy,” he said.
“But let us go further. If we eliminate all of the salaries from the level of minister upwards, we would save a grand total of $16.5 million. In effect, we would send home all of the ministers, all of the permanent secretaries, deputy permanent secretaries, doctors, magistrates and heads of department to realise a saving of less than $17 million. Clearly, the mathematics does not support the political arguments. The facts show that employment in the public service is skewed toward the lower grades, with Grades 3, 5, 7, 9, 10 and 12 accounting for the largest numbers,” he added.