Given the amount of pension received by former presidents monthly, benefits are not really necessary, according to Attorney General Basil Williams who said yesterday that the passage of legislation to cap these benefits was an attempt to correct the mischief done.
“…A former president gets 7/8 of the salary of the sitting president and it means that when the current president’s salary is looked at and you get 7/8 of that as a former president you are doing very well so you don’t even really need the benefits,” Williams told reporters at his office.
He told the media that the “mischief we are trying to correct and remedy is the mischief where you had an act giving benefits that were uncapped to former presidents and the worst nightmare of the populace was realized when one was confronted with the exorbitant amount of money that has been spent under the heading of benefits.”
Defending his government’s position on the issue, he stressed that Guyana is a poor county and that the benefits being given were untenable and as such the government decided to go to Parliament with the expressed understanding that “we are going to cap the benefits. You all know the figures that have been coming out and so we capped it.”
Williams said that as a result all former presidents will be affected by this capping. “You must note that President Granger is not a former president. The former presidents are the three existing former presidents [Bharrat Jagdeo, Donald Ramotar and Sam Hinds] and as a result of
