Parliamentarians should get cut in pay, not increase
THE EDITOR: I noted with some interest that although thirty percent of the population of this country is deemed to be living below the poverty line in spite of our abundant natural resources and with an annual budget in excess of $30 million, the Prime Minister and other members of Parliament as well as other senior government officials are being considered for an increase in salary. Of course in addition to their basic salary which in itself is not in the region of peanuts, they get housing allowance, transport allowance, motor car allowance, chauffeur allowance, entertainment allowance, tax free concessions on new cars and low interest loans on new cars just to name a few. In the private sector, increase to directors and senior management personnel who are non-unionised, are given on the basis of merit and performance which is how it should be. I think it is quite fair to say that if the increase given to the Prime Minister and other members of parliament were based on performance, they would all be given a cut in salary of at least fifty percent. In fact if they were employed in the private sector which is very unlikely to begin with, they would have long since been promptly dismissed for gross dereliction of duty and rank incompetence. MARTIN KAVANAGH La Romaine
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"Parliamentarians should get cut in pay, not increase"