SENIOR PUBLIC sector executives whose salaries packages exceeded government guidelines have rebuffed efforts by the Finance Ministry to roll back their salaries, as was recommended by former Bank of Jamaica (BoJ) Governor, Ambassador Herbert Walker.Deputy Financial Secretary Robert Martin told a meeting of the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament (PAC) yesterday that the overwhelming majority of the executives had refused to have their increases rolled back, saying their contracts were backed by the force of law.
At the height of the public sector wage scandal last December, Prime Minister P.J. Patterson asked Ambassador Walker to examine areas where wage guidelines might have been breached and to suggest ways of cutting off loopholes.
One of the recommendations in his report, which was tabled in Parliament in January, was that "where increases exceeded guidelines, they should be rolled back without exception".
The Deputy Finance Secretary told yesterday's meeting that "there have been one or two cases where they have been, in fact, roll-backs. In other cases, because of a legally-binding contract and a negotiated agreement, the roll-backs have not been done".
Patsy Richardson, another of the Ministry's Deputy Financial Secretaries, told the meeting a decision had been taken not to pursue the matter but to await the expiry of the old contracts before making modifications to the salaries. She said the advice of the Attorney-General's Department supported that decision.
However, she noted a response from the Solicitor-General's Department was still pending.
PAC chairman Audley Shaw urged the Ministry to seek a swift reply from the Solicitor-General then communicate the response to the committee.
At the same time, committee member Rev. Ronald Thwaites, blasted the public sector entities and their executives who refused to have their salaries modified. He said if they were allowed to get away with ignoring the government's guidelines it would leave the door open for breaches to creep through again.
"What you are doing is using the force of law, which is a binding contract, to defeat an already existing provision, which has equal force of law," said Rev. Thwaites.
"Now bless my soul, is that what we must just pass over like that?"
However, Mrs. Richardson said directives issued by Cabinet were merely administrative guidelines, while the contracts had legal backing.
Gavin Chen
Pay package: $9.7m
Derrick Latibeaudiere
Pay package: $9.1m
Noel Hylton
Pay package: $8.5m
Nathan Richards
Pay package: $7.9m
Robert Gregory
Pay package: $7.5m
