Dear Editor,
I make reference to an article captioned ‘Retirees getting ‘fat cat’ salaries – situation forcing political loyalty’ that was carried in KN on January 17, wherein Former Auditor General Anand Goolsarran convincingly made the point, with which I wholeheartedly agree, that “the offering of contracts under lucrative terms to retired public and other officials” is an “unacceptable situation” that is “skewed in favour of political loyalty”. Mr Goolsarran went on to say that this practice by the previous government, would have “sacrificed the hiring of technical and professional competence without any consideration of costs and the adverse effect it has on the morale of staff”. Further he stated that there are a number of persons who retire and return to work in the same position, but on “contractual terms on emoluments higher than their ending salaries when they were on the pensionable establishments”.
Editor, unless the practice that Mr Goolsarran refers to is put under some control, one of the primary objectives of this government of finding jobs for the younger population of this country will be unrealised. Until such time that there is a significant expansion in the industrial and service-oriented sectors, employment opportunities for the younger people will be rare. Each year, almost 5,000 persons graduate from the University of Guyana, with almost half graduating as never-employed. The supply of tertiary and vocational graduates is way higher than the demand for them; as a consequence those who cannot locate suitable jobs which are commensurate with their skills and qualifications, will either have to take odd and menial jobs, or seek employment regionally and extra-regionally.
The point that Mr Goolsarran made therefore must be taken in the context that retaining retirees prevents the employment of youths. I do not advocate that employees should be made redundant after a certain age, but where job creation is less than the supply of skilled and qualified workers there must be an outward movement of employees of a certain age to create an equilibrium between demand and supply. Mr Goolsarran made reference to Canada where there is no moratorium on the retirement age. This is because unemployment is low, and there is a shortage of skills to meet demand in the service and manufacturing sectors in some provinces.
With an effective succession planning process, a successor to the retiree should be in place, which cascades down to the final replacement in the chain of the hierarchy ‒ the employment of someone unemployed. The failure to have an effective succession planning process is one of the reasons that contribute to the massive unemployment of qualified youths in this country.
Editor, Mr Goolsarran’s criticism focused on this unacceptable practice which was followed by the previous government. I endorse his criticism. In the same manner that he criticized the previous government, I would recommend to Mr Goolsarran that he peruses the report of GuySuCo’s Commission of Inquiry (CoI) that was appointed by the current government.
In Section 4.3 of the CoI’s report captioned ‘Open Ended Retirement’, it states, “The practice of retiring employees at age 60 should be discontinued in favour of an open-ended, more flexible approach to retirement. The practical considerations which drive this idea cannot be ignored. People are now living well past the Biblical 3-score years plus 10”. Interestingly, the report further states “Expanding life span sees the number of centenarians on the rise; examples of septuagenarians and octogenarians will successfully continue their working lives in varying roles from the bottom to the top… right up to heads and chairmanships of organisations,” The CoI is recommending that GuySuCo should exercise an “open-ended”, “flexible” approach in retaining those who have attained the age of 60, even if they are prepared to work until age 100. It’s obvious that this recommendation runs counter to Mr Goolsarran’s justified criticism.
The executive summary of the said report states “there remains and exists a number of competent managers committed to organisational goals. They need an environment for full expression of their training and skills wherein the nation benefits”. Where would this environment in GuySuCo come from to facilitate the “full expression of their training and skills” if the opportunities are occupied by retirees who under normal circumstance will refrain from proceeding on retirement but hold their current jobs under existing salaries with significant top-ups from gratuity payments and pensions as currently obtains with several job holders? The sugar company currently has in its employ septuagenarians and octogenarians.
Yours faithfully,
Rajendra Parmanand
