Govt ministers “deserve” hefty salary increases

Last Updated on Tuesday, 6 October 2015, 18:32 by GxMedia

While concern has been expressed by sections of society over a move by the government to increase the salaries of its officials, Minister of State, Joseph Harmon has opined that the Ministers are deserving of the increase.

Reports in several sections of the media indicate that the Order for the increase was given by Finance Minister Winston Jordan on September 23 and gazette two days later.

The order declares that Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo will now be paid $20.5M yearly, an increase of just over $2M while Vice Presidents will receive $11,135,064 annually.

Senior Ministers, meanwhile, will receive a monthly increase of just over $200,000 with their salaries being bumped up to $869,000 per month while Junior Ministers will receive close to $695,000 per month.

Harmon told reporters that the previous salaries earned by Ministers was not up to par with what they should receive.

He said that if the government would like quality then it has to pay for it rather than have graft.

“It is justifiable, we cannot have a situation like the PPP where they were prepared to accept low salaries because they were thieving money all over the place. We cannot have that,” the Minister stated.

“I am not going to say that I make any apologies whatsoever for Ministers getting increase in salaries, they deserve it,” he added