| …may refuse increase to MPsGuyana can ill-afford to pay the astronomical increases in the salaries now being paid to Ministers of the Government, says General Secretary of the opposition People’s Progressive Party,Cheap NFL Jerseys China, Clement Rohee.The increases are also for the newly installed Vice President portfolios of the four-month-old government.The opposition People’s Progressive Party (PPP) is yet to decide on whether to accept its ‘chicken feed’ offer.The party’s General Secretary, Clement Rohee, did not mince words yesterday, as he responded to confirmation of the salary increases—as published in the Official Gazette—and defended by Minister of State Joseph Harmon.Harmon in defending the increases, on Tuesday, said he had no apologies and that better paid Ministers would not be ‘thieving.’Rohee lambasted Harmon’s allegations that “The PPP was prepared to accept low salaries because they were thieving money all over the place,” and called it “libelous defamatory and provocative.”He cautioned the Minister of State. “Harmon is advised to be careful with the lies and invectives hurled at members of the PPP.”In dismissing Harmon’s insinuation of thieving from the national patronage by the PPP,NFL Jerseys Wholesale, its General Secretary said, despite the numerous audits set about by the administration, the government is yet to lay credible evidence against any of the hierarchy in the past administration.“They are saying that we are stealing all over the place. In the same breath I can say that they all over the place looking for evidence, in every nook and cranny, under every bed, in every cupboard. They still have not been able to cough up anything,Cheap NFL Jerseys China,” according to Rohee.Infuriated PublicThe former Government Minister has since predicted that the coalition A Partnership for National Unity plus Alliance for Change (APNU+AFC) Government, will feel the wrath of an infuriated public.According to Rohee, Minister of State Harmon and his Cabinet colleagues, “will have to take blows from an infuriated and even offended Guyanese public” for what he rejected as the “meat for the boys, bones for the worker’s wages policy of the government.”The PPP General Secretary told media operatives that APNU+AFC’s promised “lean and mean government”. The talk of a “good life” has now “gone for channa.”He said the salary increases, “which Guyanese tax payers, will have to bear the burden,Wholesale NFL Jerseys 2018, comes at a time when rice farmers, sugar workers and the Guyanese people as a whole have become disenchanted, disillusioned and totally fed-up, with an uncaring (David) Granger Administration.”Questioning the almost 50 per cent increases in some cases,Wholesale Jerseys USA, Rohee asked, “How could these four-month old Ministerial neophytes, who are still wet behind the ears, who are yet to be assessed, with no stellar performances and who according to one daily newspaper, are now getting acquainted with their respective portfolios, be entitled and qualified for such fat paychecks?”In his lamentations, he called for evidence of a four-month-old government being deserving of such astronomical increases.“Where is the evidence that (Prime Minister Moses) Nagamootoo, (Minister of State, Joseph) Harmon or (Vice President Khemraj) Ramjattan would have earned such huge amounts had they remained in private law practice…?“Where is the evidence that any of the Ministers or Junior Ministers would have been able to line their pockets with such staggering sums were they employed in the private sector or in their private capacity?”Chicken feedBut asked about the almost 20 per cent increase also applying to the salaries of members of the political opposition, Rohee told members of the local media corps that the party is yet to decide on whether it will accept or reject it.“So far as the increase for MPs (Members of Parliament) is concerned we haven’t made any decision on whether we will accept or reject as a political party.”He called the increase to the regular MPs, including members of the opposition PPP, “chicken feed compared to what we are seeing in relation to the ugly, highly paid increases for those persons or category of persons that I mentioned.”Rohee was referring to the Junior and Senior Ministers along with Prime Minister and Vice Presidents.Good Life for a FewHe met with members of the media at his party’s Freedom House Headquarters on Robb Street and reminded of Government’s utterances only recently when, according to Rohee, the ‘cupboard was bare’ meaning the public treasury had no money and that the country was bankrupt.The PPP General Secretary said that what is in fact unfolding as against the promised good life for all, is a good life for a few.Rohee used the opportunity to call on the local trade union bodies to agitate for better wages and salaries for the ordinary public servants.“Because obviously they deserve a good life too, all working people deserve a good life,” said Rohee.He recalled, too,NFL Jerseys China, the promised 20 per cent increase for workers by the coalition as it campaigned for office. This did not obtain, “so how come they can afford these hefty increases for a few.”He said had this money been distributed among workers on a bottom level salary scale,Jerseys Cheap Wholesale, “that I believe would bring a good life at least in a measured way to Guyanese people.” |
