By Jomo Paul
[www.inewsguyana.com] – Minister of State Joseph Harmon says that the recently revealed increase in salaries to Government Ministers and other officials are justifiable.
Harmon, speaking to the media on Tuesday, made it clear that the Government has no apologies to make for increasing the salaries of Government Officials even after it had publicly stated that it wasn’t proceeding along that line.
According to Harmon, before the increase the salary of a Minister a senior Minister is (was) $500,000 per month – “that is money I paid to my attorneys who worked with me when I was in private practice.”
He said “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 of State posited that if the government wants to get the best out of its officials then, paying them well would be sure way to go.
“We have to pay people well if we want them to perform. I am not going to say that I make any apologies whatsoever for Ministers getting increase in salaries, they deserve it.”
In an Extraordinary Official Gazette published on September 25, it was noted that the order for the increases was made on September 23, by Finance Minister Winston Jordan.
According to the order, Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo will now be paid $20,580,000 per annum which works out to just over $1.7M per month.
Vice Presidents will receive $11,135,064 per annum or $927,000 per month. Senior government Ministers are slated for a $10M annual salary at 869,000 per month while Junior Ministers will receive close to $700,000 per month.
Parliamentarians will also be paid $2, 402,532 each year. Increases were also given to the Chief Whips and the Speaker and Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly.
If I had one million to bet, I’ll bet that we will never again see free and fair elections in Guyana. They stole the last elections. These are people with no conscience.
God bless Guyana.
All i read is that the PPP/C does theft the country money for 22 years but boy the PNC wanted to theft all the country money in just one year look the difference.
The entire Guyanese population should start picketing .This is unbearable insult to all .
Was this a part of the first 100 days in office and to my understanding the PNC was saying that Guyana is in a bankrupted state so where is all of this money coming from so suddenly for a 50% raise?.
Why are you guys fighting this is the best government they already kill the rice industry and also the sugar industry in lest that 6 months in power soon all Guyanese will be on the roadside begging because in 2 yrs from now most of the people will be out of a job because no one will come to invest in Guyana.
What else could we expect from these shameless treasure hunters.This Was a plan well executed with little regards for the Guyanese people.It all coming alive .power power and no respect for the people ..
“NO APOLOGIES” to those who will soon walk around with white mouths and swell bellies again.
The old PNC dictators was successful in fooling their youths like James Bond, Sharma Solomon, etc. etc.
I am so happy that I voted for the PPP.
So right very arrogant indeed. Just shows the mentality
Haroon need to stop take picture. He is too ugly for the Camera! Next time the camera might crank out with the following error “Too ugly to take a snap”! These clowns do not deserve an increase in salary! Everyday on the news trying to low talk the PPP…while the rice industry collapse, while the sugar industry collapse, while the crime rate increase and the dollar value slide under the ocean. Guyana is heading down with captain Granger aboard! It is exactly what the US wanted, a poor dollar value means they will suck oil from Guyana @ a low cost! This is why the installed the PNC to kill the dollar value…take debts which is exactly what Hoyte/Burnham did and unable to pay it back…forcing Guyana into Bankruptcy!
Mr. Harmon has allot of balls to say he owes no one an apology. He seems to forget that he is a public servant and that he works for the people of Guyana and not the other way around. Here hr is literally openly stealing from the tax payers and at the same time wants to be a bully. Well my fellow Guyanese both Indo and Afro Guyanese stand up for your rights and do not let these jerks bully and take advantage of you. We should not allow these dictators to control us – we had that under the Burnham regime and as far as I am concerned should never happen again. Soon they will have their tugs terrorizing the people so that you would keep quiet – look out it will happen soon. Surajbally should be fired and jailed for aligning himself with the APNU / AFC and rigging the elections. As a matter of fact all of GECOM executives should be jailed including Mr. Harmon. GECOM installed this dictatorship government.
Doubling Salaray doesnt make someone stop thieving HARP MAN…what was the salary of FIFA boys them…what they did???? Look at BRAZIL Petrobras…what were the execs earning and what is in the news now????? where did you buy your certificates???
well done to the Guyanese people who voted for these thief. Give you 7 -1/2 % and took 50%. I think the people in the public service is a pact of jack ass. where is the PSU
What a Shame DITATATOR JEO!!!!! Every corner people are crying since you PNC took over and just under 6 mths you double your salaries. What will happen in four more years???? SHAME SHAME SHAME SHAME….This dont care a damn attitude of this regime spells clearly greed – they old guys who are all fighting for state funeral dont care of the young generations to come. If the do crap and loose they live their lives, the new comers of the PNC will sit as opposition for the next two decades come 2020… where are the youths….PNC youths how would you allow these people to ruin your future with a dictator like Harp Man… SPEAK NOW for forever hold your peace!!!
This just sounds arrogant from Harmon. He shows little or no respect of the tax payers of Guyana.
With Moses Nagamotoo wanting to control state media and Joe Harmon being arrogant, this will be a one term government.
100% increase in 5 months! In 5 years they will take one million % increase with oil money! Who says that rich man don’t take bribe? All public servants, teachers, nurses, policemen, firemen, pensioners also demand a 100% increase! Pre-election quote : ‘Government is the servant of the people’. Reality:’People are the slaves of the Government’.
“The rich get richer, the poor get poorer, suffering in the land”- Jimmy Cliff.
This was bound to happen. A leapord will never change it’s skin. Filling their pockets while the rest suffers. For those who wanted changes you surely got it. Within another 4 years time Guyana will be totally bankrupt once again.
This regime is just bare faced! Five months into a new government and he justifies salary increases. If his practice was so profitable, why the fuck didn’t he stay there! Politics isn’t there to get you rich! Serve the people you idiots!
The issue is not the amount of increase for each cabinet minister or MPs, but the timing. How difficult would it have been to simply wait until the next Budget? Show the people you are in this for them, at least for the first year, then go for a pay raise after achieving notable objectives.
What can the coalition chalk up as an achievement worthy of a pay raise?
And for Harmon to claim the pay raise would discourage stealing as happened under the PPP, can he show us one case where any thief in the PPP government was convicted?
I don’t want to predict this is a one-term coalition, but if it continues to exhibit this level of unchecked insensitivity, it could give crossover voters a reason to go back to their old camp of join the growing number of detached Guyanese.
The PNC is being paid for hijacking Guyana!!!
2015 Elections was RIGGED! Surujbally said the “CEO was lauded for finding the anomalies and highlighting them, and therefore Many Statements of Polls (SOPs) received by GECOM from the ten (10) Electoral Districts were identified as FAKES.
At its meeting of Wednesday, May 13th, 2015, the Chief Elections Officer of GECOM, Mr. Keith Lowenfield, disclosed that he had noticed that many of the SOPs had formats different from the authentic SOPs that were earlier distributed to the Electoral Districts to be used by Presiding Officers to tabulate votes at Polling Stations.
These fake SOPs did not additionally carry the endorsed signatures of GECOM that were applied to every SOP purchased by GECOM from Canada.
It was also disclosed that SOPs had numbers of voters that exceeded the voters that were assigned to the Polling Stations.
Surujbally should be jailed!
Very dissapointing.Too much too soon.Are they worth it,wehave to wait and see.If you plan to use private sector salary yardsticks for public sector salaries, then nurses, teachers , public sector employees and all the diciplined forces should also be raised by 80 to 100%, which is impossible for government to finance unless they decide to print allot of money and cause uncontrollable inflation.This is not leadership by example,this is putting the carraige before the horse,and is very selfish.
well said Hon Minister,Dindyal from GPL was making 6 million a month and many others under he PPP regime so what are they crying about?they are so shameless and bitter.Keep up the good works APNU/AFC colation and god is watching over you all.
They lied to the people AGAIN! This blasted govt is full of crooks. There is no justification for these 100% salary increases. This is total eyepass.
That’s what the uneducated ones voted for. High salaries and more thieving. What a change
These bastards should just drop dead
The arrogance of this man and his administration. This move is just wrong. Where is the evidence that the PPP “were thieving money all over the place”? Where are the reports of the audit exercises and the investigation by Clive Thomas? This is unconscionable … if they deserve hefty increases and they just got in there, what about the public servants who were in service for years? Arent they to be made unbribeable too? No, this needs to be condemned … if these people were really Christians, they would act far better. You cannot compare government service to work done in your private practise. Come on!! If you wanted to make big bucks you should not have ran for office.
The meaning of the word POLITICS poli,,people,,tics,,,they suck blood,,,so thanks to the blood suckers APNU all peoples national union,,,/ PNC united with a new boss ypu all wanted change ,,,,we got it,,,,SOS same old shit,,,,
Arrogance for the taxpayers money are starting to creep in or up. These kind of comment in some jurisdictions would come in for a flak. Some of are going ‘now is our time’ instead of nipping it at the bud.
Ha well its only a matter of time before they start thieving. All politicians steal and are not to be trusted. So what is he all about.
No one is contesting this move? This is ridiculous, they knew what their salaries would be like since they were running for elections. Now that they have the power they are going to exploit the opportunity to get rich quick, just like the old administration. Guyana is such a poor country, how could we possibly afford to pay these people so much? And this is on top of all the benefits that they receive, duty free, security, etc.
Talking about having a dictatorship regime – well it has only been a few month that they are in power and already they are filling their pockets and at the same time being barefaced in saying that the PPP was stealing. What nonsense is this? I hope the Guyanese people are paying closing attention to this abuse and waste of their tax dollars. Not to mention the elaborate security that each of the ministers, president and prime ministers have which is also a waste of tax payers money. With the entire country at standstill and with business being very slow I do not know where the additional monies will be coming from to pay for all of the additional perks. And to the civil servants – you are the backbone hard working individuals and what have you received but a measly 10% increase. Now if that is not eye pass I do not know what you will term it to be. We are in for some tough times ahead with this government – they are going to bankrupt the entire country and take us all back to the dark days. My fellow Guyanese do not stifle your conscious – wake and smell the coffee and do not allow this government to take advantage of you. I know that everyone wanted “CHANGE” – well this is not the CHANGE that people expected. We got some “CHANGE” that surprised even their own supporters. And to the youths who voted APNU / AFC – now you have sometime to compare to. You grew up under the PPP and knew nothing else so you wanted to experience a different government hoping for better. Now the next time around all of you better pay close attention and do not be blind and be fooled by these babbling crooks.