Contract employees escape cuts

-after opposition abstains

Amidst cuts made to GINA, NCN and GPL, the opposition on Thursday allowed budgetary allocations of $380.3M, meant to facilitate the payment of salaries to contracted workers at the Office of the President (OP), to go through untouched.

Considering that the combined opposition voted to slash these allocations considerably during last year’s consideration of the estimates, many assumed that similar action would have been taken this year. Cuts were made last year after the Alliance For Change (AFC) and A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) determined that many of the persons slated to benefit should not. Further, the opposition parties explained that they were in disagreement with this method of hiring employees since it took away job security as well as several benefits.

Nevertheless, by abstaining, the opposition allowed the funds to pass after Minister within the Ministry of Finance Juan Edghill provided answers to questions put to him by members of the combined opposition, particularly the leader of the AFC, Khemraj Ramjattan.

Ramjattan’s probing included questions about the offices to be paid by these allocations as well as the reason for the considerable jump in the request, relative to what was requested last year. The request made this year is $245 million more than the $64 million requested in the last budget.

Juan Edghill
Juan Edghill
Rupert Roopnaraine
Rupert Roopnaraine
Moses Nagamootoo
Moses Nagamootoo

Edghill explained that the funds will be used to pay Accounts Clerks, Administrative Officers and Assistants, Cleaners, Information Technology Officers, Drivers and Office Assistants, among others. In relation to the increase, Edghill explained that the added amounts were intended to facilitate the development of the government’s Information and  Communication Technology (ICT) programme.

When it came to the vote, the government unsurprisingly voted yes to the amounts while the opposition abstained, effectively allowing the amounts to be passed.

Asked the reason for his party’s tacit consent, APNU MP Rupert Roopnaraine explained that the decision to go through with an amendment is based on the quality of the information provided. Roopnaraine said “once we get the quality of information that we’ve asked for and were satisfied with it then we do not go through with it.”

Similar sentiments were not felt by the AFC.  Moses Nagamootoo, MP for the AFC, said that the proposal for cuts for payments of contract workers from the 2013 budget should be taken by government as a warning. Making it clear that the AFC was not satisfied with the answers provided, Nagamootoo said that the opposition has, on several occasions, communicated their demand for government to freeze hiring persons as contracted employees in favor of allowing the resuscitation of employment by merit through the Public Service Commission.

Nagamootoo said, however, that instead of repeating last year’s decision to meticulously pick apart the list of contracted employees to ascertain if they are hired based on competence as opposed to affiliation, and to ensure that their salaries are commensurate with their responsibilities, the party once again placed the issue on the table so that government would take note that the AFC’s concerns still had not been addressed.

He added that the decision to let the funds pass was influenced by actions taken by the government last year to restore the reduced amounts. Taking this into consideration, Nagamootoo said that the AFC will observe what government does on this issue in the next budget. In the meantime, he said, the party will examine possible actions to be taken if their demands continue to be ignored.

Nagamootoo said that last year a clear message was sent when the combined opposition voted to cut funding meant for contracted to employees. He reiterated that the matter was raised again by the opposition this year in light of the government’s failure to take steps to address their concerns and said that if the practice persists into next year’s budget the opposition will indeed be unforgiving.