Biman stands by statement on pay cuts

NATIONAL Federation Party leader Prof Biman Prasad says he has never called for the civil service to take a 35 per cent pay cut.

“At no point I called for a reduction in the salaries of the civil service,” he said while speaking in Parliament on Thursday.

“What I suggested was all the Cabinet Ministers, Members of Parliament, permanent secretaries right up to the director level.

“And I said anybody below the director level should not have a pay cut, so it’s not the whole civil service, the prime minister should correct that.”

Prof Prasad raised the point of order while Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama was reading out a letter he wrote to the NFP leader in response to Prof Prasad’s request for a bipartisan approach to the COVID-19 response budget.

In the letter, Prof Prasad offered NFP’s “wholehearted assistance in the preparation and passage of the coronavirus response supplementary budget” which was announced in Parliament on Thursday evening.

Prof Prasad said, in the letter, for Government and the Opposition to have a bipartisan agreement on the contents of the supplementary budget before it was presented to Parliament.

He said there could be a short debate on the budget on Monday, March 30 with a few selected and agreed speakers each from Government and the Opposition, and have the third reading and bipartisan endorsement and passage of the budget on the same day.

Prof Prasad said this would save valuable time and boost the confidence of the Fijian people and the business community.

In response, the PM said he was not sure which Biman Prasad to write to when formulating his reply.

“Is it the Biman who divisively attacked Fiji’s overtly political call for multilateral action in the Financial Times, undermining the need for unity in our rallying cry for small island states,” Mr Bainimarama said.

“Is it the same Biman who decisively politicised a global economic crisis, preaching that Fiji was somehow on unequal footing as countless other nations who faced the fallout with the pandemic?

“Is this the same Biman who divisively condemned the lifesaving protection measures enforced by the police officers at the borders of the Lautoka confined area?

“Is it the same Biman who divisively labelled the Government egotistical and then in the same breath apparently demanded a 35 per cent pay cut for all those in the civil service which would include our essential health care workers on the frontline of our COVID-19 response.”