THE EDITOR, SIR:
IN THE Sunday edition of your paper, dated February 15, 2004,
you published the salary package of the future president of the Caribbean Court
of Justice. Needless to say, I was shocked at the high amount of remuneration
and it clearly shows why the Jamaican Government, for instance, is paying 20,000
public service workers annual salary of over $40 billion.
The salary package of the president will include a non-taxable
annual income of US$144,000, an official residence or housing allowance of US$36,000,
US$200 per day for time spent on official duty outside of Trinidad and Tobago,
an official fully maintained car, with chauffeur, entertainment allowance (yet
to be determined) and US$10,000 for him/her and his/her spouse.
While I am not an accountant, and I will have no objection to
being corrected, this would amount to an annual non-taxable salary of between
US$220,000 to US$250,000. I have conducted a quick research and have found no
other country in the world which pays its judges such a high salary.
THE RICHEST COUNTRY
The richest country in the world, the United States of America,
pays the Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court, an annual taxable
salary of $202,000 and the Associate Justices an annual taxable salary of $194,200.
They get no free housing, entertainment allowan-ces or other perks.
The question then is why some of the poorest countries in the
world decided that this outrageous salary package is reasonable? We will always
be poor until our leaders in the Caribbean accept the fact that public servants
deserve to make decent living but not to get rich on the job. It would appear
that the CCJ is not a cost-saving solution to our problem. It is my hope that
the people who are in a position to do so, review this salary package.
I am, etc.,
PERCIVAL A. CLARKE,
Attorney-at-law
e-mail: percivalclarke
@ hotmail.com
6 Gramatan Avenue, Mount
Vernon
New York
Via Go-Jamaica
