The People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Government has taken a move in the National Assembly to address the three-month delay in the payment of the first salary for new public servants with a commitment now to have this done within a reasonable time.
This move stemmed from a motion tabled by the A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) Opposition to abolish the longstanding three-month rule entirely.
Persons joining the public sector for the first time are subjected to wait after three months to receive their first salary from the State. At that time, they are paid for the three months and thereafter monthly.
The Opposition Motion was tabled by Coalition Member of Parliament Tabitha Sarabo Halley during Thursday’s sitting of the National Assembly. It sought to have the Government “…ensure that public servants receive their first paycheck no more than one month after the commencement of their employment in the public sector.”
Sarabo-Halley, a former Public Service Minister, called the three-month rule “an unconscionable” and “unethical”. She contended that public servants should no longer face the burden of such a delay in getting paid especially during this period when the cost of living is on the rise and other difficulties are compounding Guyanese.
“Guyana maybe the only country who consistently has it as an unwritten policy that [new] public servants must learn to live with waiting months for a paycheck… The State has access to the necessary resources required to figure out best practices that exist in other countries to better what we have here as a country.”
“Do not think of this as a political issue but the recognition that public servants require more, deserve more and should get more from the State and from us in this National Assembly,” the MP argued, noting that there needs to be a commitment by both sides to change this process.
However, the Government’s side agreed that this issue is one that needs to be fixed but it was pointed out that the administrative process in place does not allow for the amendment that the Opposition is proposing to be made since there is a multi-agency system in place to get new recruits onto the public sector payroll.
To this end, Public Service Minister, Sonia Parag, countered and proposed that the Opposition’s motion be amended to show instead that public servants receive their first paycheck within “a reasonable time” after receiving their employment contract. “This Government does not want to see public servants waiting three months to be paid. They do not want to even see public servants wait for two months to be paid,” the Minister noted.
According to the Public Service Minister, despite there being a tedious process involving several state agencies, there are systems in place to alleviate this financial strain on new public servants.
“When you get to the Ministry of Public Service, you go through several agencies before you get there and what is a fact… is that even as persons are waiting for their approval [to be on the payroll] agencies such as the regional bodies and other ministries would pay an advance. They would place [the new recruits] on a temporary employment so that they can be paid while waiting,” she outlined.
“Every public servant that has come to the Ministry of Public Service, we have tried within a timely manner to be able to get those persons their salaries. That obviously involves a multi-agency collaboration… I take offence to everything that has been said because this government – whether be it public servant, whether be it farmers, whether be it the vulnerable groups, the elderly or the children – this government, from day one, has been in all of the villages and regions of this country trying to assist and have been assisting,” Parag stressed.
This Motion took up the majority of Thursday’s National Assembly sitting as MPs from both sides traded barbs and argue their respective positions on the issue. The debate was eventually wrapped by Senior Finance Minister Dr Ashni Singh Thursday evening who called out the APNU/AFC Coalition for deliberately pretending not to understand the longstanding issue and process that has languished over several administrations.
Nevertheless, the Government used its one-seat majority in the Assembly, along with the support of Opposition MP Lenox Shuman – the representative of the Joinder List – to eventually pass the amendments to the Motion. Consequently, the amended Motion was approved by the House and will see public servants getting their first salary long before three months.
