Government to Review Public Sector Value Amid Proposed Salary Increase

Minister of Public Service Henry Charles Usher says that government and the joint unions will be taking a comprehensive look at the wage bill, in light of Cabinet’s recent approval of a salary increase. As part of the 7-point proposal sent to the unions on Wednesday, the government proposed that their 8.5 percent salary increase be implemented in phases, with the first increase of 3 percent to take effect on October 1. With the wage bill increasing Usher says that government will be collaborating with the unions, through various committees, to determine whether the government is getting value for money. These committees are looking at key factors such as the number of public officers, qualifications, salaries in comparison to the private sector, and performance. Usher says that the government wants to ensure that those holding positions are the best suited for the job.

Henry Charles Usher, Minister of Public Service: “As a matter of fact, in previous discussions with the joint union team, we reestablished some committees, the Revenue Enhancement Committee, the Cost Saving Committee, and the Pension Reform Committee. Those committees are committees that are standing, meaning that they are operating all year around, and they are advising and making recommendations to the government as to how we can improve revenue collection, improve new areas of revenue,  improve on the cost saving initiatives that the government has put in place. One of those is to look at the wage bill to see areas where we can improve in terms of perhaps  we have to do audits of the different ministries / departments to see if there are workers to fill all of those posts, etc. That’s what’s called a desk audit. So all of that is ongoing and while that is happening we’re also looking at the comprehensive review of the salary structure in the public service that is a project also that we’re working in collaboration with the IDB to bring in consultants to work with the Ministry of Public Service, the Ministry of Finance, of course the Ministry of Education and the other departments necessary to be able to implement that comprehensive salary review. At the end we hope to be able to have a public service that not only is affordable, that is one that is the wage bill is something that we can certainly budget for, but also we want to make sure we have the best and the brightest in these departments and that means we have to properly compensate them and we have to look at what the private sector is paying to certain people to make sure that we at least remain competitive in the public service.”

Last week, President of the Association of Public Sector Senior Managers (APSSM) Sharon Fraser, said that the unions have been calling on government to address the high wage bill for years, but the hirings continue.