President Dr Irfaan Ali has announced that plans are afoot to realign the pay scale as well as introduce better incentives for officers of the Guyana Police Force (GPF).
He made the announcement today during the opening ceremony of the Annual Police Officers’ Conference at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre (ACCC).
“An important issue is the realignment of pay scales…we also have to look at the pay scale of the Guyana Police Force as against other entities and we have promised that, in terms of realigning the pay scale across agencies in the government, things will get better, conditions will get better, your emolument package will get better,” President Ali explained.
“But also, with that, we require better performance,” he pointed out.
The Guyanese Head of State also revealed that his administration is exploring the possibility of introducing an incentive-based performance system to compliment promotions and emolument.
This system, adopted by other countries, has proven successful and Home Affairs Minister, Robeson Benn has been tasked with designing a workable model for Guyana.
“I’ve asked the Minister of Home Affairs to develop a policy on an incentive-based performance system for the Guyana Police Force that is linked to reward. We have seen how this has helped in countries like Rwanda which has changed dramatically the image of the law enforcement entity and it has brought results,” President Ali outlined.
“So, whilst we have an average time of five to six years for persons moving up the ranks, there must be a mechanism in which emoluments is affected other than by promotion,” he added.
Last year, the Guyana Govenrment had announced that the inconsistencies regarding the salary scale across the public sector will be addressed.
Finance Minister Dr Ashni Singh had explained that “government has recognised the existence of a number of anomalies and disparities across positions within the public service salary scales, as a result of which there are marked inconsistencies across the pay received by persons holding similar qualifications, but occupying different posts depending on the agency in which they work, the post to which they are appointed, and the salary scale in which their post is classified.”
He had explained that, for example, a new graduate with a degree in environmental science might be earning $120,000 in one agency while a new graduate with an identical degree in environmental science might be earning $190,000 in another agency.
