Salaries for PPP/C Presidents, ministers rose by 386% and 220% over 17 years

Salary increases for PPP/C presidents and ministers amounted to over 386% and 220% respectively over a 17-year period while that party was in government.

This was revealed by Minister of Finance Winston Jordan in the National Assembly yesterday in response to a question posed by government Member of Parliament Jermaine Figueira, according to a statement from the Office of the Prime Minister.

Figueira had asked the Finance Minister to present to the National Assembly the annual increases in salaries for public servants and ministers and presidents for the period 1998 to 2014.

In his response Jordan stated that total salary increases for public servants for the period amounts to 164.7%. However Jordan disclosed that the salaries of the then PPP/C ministers of government rose over the same period by 220.5%, some 55% more than the public servants’ increase.

Jordan also revealed that the salary of the president, during the same period increased by 386.5%.

Prime Minister and First Vice President Moses Nagamootoo last evening in response said that he found it unconscionable that the salary increases for PPP/C Presidents and ministers were so high.

“It is utterly disgraceful that the post-Jagan Cabinet bureaucracy grabbed an average 300% salary hike during 1998 and 2014,” Nagamootoo said before leaving Parliament Buildings last evening following the revelations by the Finance Minister. Nagamootoo had been a PPP/C Minister prior to these increases.

“They ‘helped’ the poor public servants over this period by giving a total of 164%, mostly in 5% doses but in 17 years, the PPP Ministers were paid a more than handsome 220% salary increase,” Nagamootoo lamented, according to the release.

The APNU+AFC government itself has been strongly criticized for awarding Cabinet ministers a 50% pay hike within months of taking office in 2015.