By Bruce Golding, ContributorPUBLIC INDIGNATION continues to mount over the recent increase in parliamentary salaries and has been exacerbated by the Government's insistence that it can offer the nation's teachers no more than three per cent per annum over the next two years. The much talked-about 103 per cent increase actually represents the movement between 1999 and 2002 which constitutes three increments as follows:
When compounded this amounts to 103 per cent between 1999 and 2002.
As the Prime Minister explained in his statement to Parliament last Tuesday and as set out by the Minister of Finance in Ministry Paper No. 8, parliamentary salaries were linked to those of permanent secretaries almost 30 years ago. At that time, however, it was not conceived that the salaries of permanent secretaries would have been increased to the extent that they have been. In particular, it was not anticipated that permanent secretaries would have moved so far ahead of the rest of the public service.
It is hard to avoid the conclusion that it is convenient and self-serving to have parliamentary salaries linked to those of 17 or 18 permanent secretaries. Simply increase their salaries and we automatically increase our own!
Nor is the public interest well served by misinformation. It is simply not true, as some officials have been saying, that parliamentary salaries remained unchanged for the past 10 years. Indeed, since 1989 there has not been a single year in which parliamentarians have not received a pay increase as the following table illustrates: Movements in parliamentary salaries (1988 - 2002)
Let me be very clear. I don't consider our parliamentarians to be overpaid given the nature of their responsibilities. Indeed, the Prime Minister's salary is less than that of second-tier managers in many local companies. But, then, our teachers, nurses, police, fire service workers etc. are, themselves, underpaid. I take the view that as holders of public trust we should not do for our own salaries what we are unable or unwilling to do for the salaries of those over whom we have direct charge. The records indicate clearly that that is what we have done and it is wrong!
The committee, headed by Oliver Clarke, is to review the formula that determines parliamentary salaries. I offer a simple solution consistent with the principle outlined earlier. Let the salaries of all parliamentarians be adjusted annually by the weighted average increase granted to the entire public sector. I challenge anyone to present a formula that is more equitable or rests on a more solid moral foundation.
