AFC presidential candidate Khemraj Ramjattan yesterday called on the government to compute and disclose the pension and benefits that President Bharrat Jagdeo will earn on demitting office, if it wants to dispute the $3.2M figure being put forward by the party.
“If they are denying that and saying that I am an arrant liar let them do the computation. Let them say how much water bill, gas bill, SUV bill, clerical and administrative staff bill, cleaning the pool… the whole works,” Ramjattan demanded yesterday during a press briefing.
Both the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) and Office of the President (OP) have objected to figures being put forward by the AFC on the matter, saying that the party was peddling deliberate misinformation and inaccuracies about the president’s pension. Both the PPP and OP argued that the benefits President Jagdeo will earn were enjoyed by all former presidents. However, PNCR Leader Robert Corbin rejected this, saying that two of the past presidents never received a pension since they died in office while Desmond Hoyte and Arthur Chung never received the benefits that Jagdeo is likely to get.
At yesterday’s conference, Ramjattan said that the AFC did a computation of each item mentioned in the Former Presidents (Benefits and Other Facilities) Bill, which was passed and enacted in 2009. Ramjattan said that the party’s initial computation amounted to approximately $3.1 M but it rounded this figure off to $3M. However, this figure has since been revised, Ramjattan indicated.
“Taking into consideration now that we have seen …the house in its entirety, knowing that that involved lots more air condition units and now that we know that there are lights under water in that pool, and all over the fence, we feel that the light bill is going to be lots more,” Ramjattan charged.
Meanwhile, Raphael Trotman, the AFC’s prime ministerial candidate, said that the pension and benefits that Jagdeo will receive exceed what other former leaders in the region earn. He said that he has since started to obtain details of the packages of retiring governors general and prime ministers in the region and will soon be making this information public.
Trotman indicated that former Jamaican Prime Minister Bruce Golding will receive a pension of US$54,000 ($10,800,000) a year, which is taxable and which does not include benefits such as a fleet of vehicles, air fare or medical expenses that Jagdeo would be eligible for.
Trotman noted that soon Sam Hinds will also qualify for such a pension and noted that the country could not afford to pay these former presidents such a large amount of money. “It is horrendous when one considers our Gross Domestic Product; the fact that people are going without food on a daily basis, that pensioners can’t buy drugs or feed themselves and take care of basic needs with $7,500 a month but yet we seem to be willing quite easily and willing provide this package,” he said.
Meanwhile, former PPP member Moses Nagamootoo indicated yesterday that he had voted for the bill when it came up in the National Assembly only because he was required to do so as a parliamentarian on the government side. “When I first saw the proposal, I had said that the ‘president’s pension plan,’ in excess of $36,000,000 annually, ‘rattled my soul,’ but to my utter shame and regret I voted for it because I was required to do so as a PPP MP,” he said.
Presidential benefits as outlined in the Act on the books
Every person who having held the office of President and ceased to hold that office by virtue of the provisions of article 92 of the Constitution or otherwise shall, during the remainder of his lifetime, be entitled to the following:
a. payment in respect of the expenses incurred in the provision and use of water, electricity and telephone services at the place of residence in Guyana;
b. services of personal and household staff including an attendant and a gardener;
c. services of clerical and technical staff, if requested;
d. free medical attendance and medical treatment or reimbursement of medical expenses incurred by him for the medical attendance or treatment of himself and the dependant members of his family;
e. full-time personal security and services of the Presidential Guard Service at the place of residence;
f. the provision of motor vehicles owned and maintained by the State;
g. toll free road transportation in Guyana;
h. an annual vacation allowance equivalent to the cost of two first class return airfares provided on the same basis as that granted to serving members of the Judiciary;
i. a tax exemption status identical to that enjoyed by a serving President.
