Most public servants will get a month’s salary as a bonus in January, Prime Minister Godwin Friday has told iWitness News.
“The salary bonus will come. We are working out the mechanics of it, and we say that we would do it within 60 days, and that is our promise, and we will deliver that,” the prime minister told iWitness News during a kerbside interview in Kingstown on Friday.
“You will hear a more in-depth announcement. I want to make sure that we have all the figures all worked out and the date and so on, when we can pay it,” he said.
Friday was speaking on the day that his New Democratic Party (NDP) government delivered the country’s first VAT-free shopping day, an election promise.
“I want all of the public servants to understand that this is something that is going to come in January. It’s part of our 60-day pledge, and we will deliver it,” he said of the salary bonus.
Asked if the government would pay a month’s salary as a bonus, the prime minister said:
“For most public servants, it will be. But, it will be screwed towards those persons at the lower end, because that’s the idea — to give the bigger benefit to the persons who are feeling the pinch more –those at the lower end of the scale.”
There have been debates in the public about the bonus salary as two copies of a pledge card produced by the NDP during the campaign for the Nov. 27 general election have surfaced.
The NDP won the election by taking 14 of the 15 parliamentary seats, ending 24 years of Unity Labour Party governance.
One card said that an NDP government would pay a double salary within a month of taking office.
That same card said that the party would also begin hiring hundreds of young Vincentians within one month.
However, another card said that the NDP government would pay a “bonus salary” within 60 days of taking office.
Both cards pledged that an NDP government would “double” public assistance to EC$500 a month and reduce VAT from 16 to 13% within 60 days of coming to office.
On Dec. 10, Senator Lavern King, the junior minister of education and NDP public relations officer, attempted to manage public sector workers’ expectations regarding the “bonus salary”, saying the NDP had promised to “give a bonus payment to all public servants”.
Meanwhile, Opposition Leader Ralph Gonsalves, speaking at a press conference in Kingstown on Dec. 10, said that the NDP’s “bonus salary” promise was a “big deception”.
“I was advised this morning that a member of the government was on a radio station saying that the NDP never promised a double salary in December; they promised a bonus,” the opposition leader said, referring to King’s comments.
What’s the relevance of the last two paragraphs? Stewps!
Well, the government giving a double salary or bonus, within the first 60 day petiod tells me they met money in the treasury, or, they have been able to turn around the dismal economy they inherited, very quickly. Tells me if the NDP were in power for the past 25 yrs the Argyle airport would have had at least 20 extra regional flights every day and we would have been the envy of every Caribbean island, with the strongest economy. Vincy ,in terms of development , would be unrecognizeable with huge revenues from CBI ,agriculture and tourism. Expect within the first 5 yrs of this administration, for our salaries to be the highest in the OECS. This is all based of the promises this administration made during the campaigns. Vincy finally got it right.