Govt will pay - President
By Courtney Jones
President Bharrat Jagdeo says his administration has every intention of honouring what has been described as the substantial arbitration tribunal's pay award for public servants. The president yesterday gave this assurance to reporters at the Presidential Secretariat during his first press conference since taking over the reins of government just over three week ago. "My Government will honour the award in respect of wages and salaries for 1999 and 2000. We have always acted in good faith and discharged our obligations honourably", the President said. The three-man tribunal headed by management consultant Dr Aubrey Armstrong and including government representative Dr Gobind Ganga and the unions' Dr Clive Thomas came up with a majority award by Armstrong and Thomas which saw public servants getting a 31.06% increase for this year based on their salary as of December 31, 1998 and 26.67% for 2000 based on the December 31, 1999 wage rates. President Jagdeo told reporters that government still does not have the money to meet the award. He said, however, that during the 45 days stipulated by the tribunal for payment to be affected, government will consider various ways of making the payment. "This will be done in collaboration with the social partners", Jagdeo explained. But the President promised to brief the nation in a much more detailed way as "to what the likely consequences of the award will mean". The President had said in the past and he repeated it at the press conference that any "excessive increase at this time" could result in major dislocations and adverse effects including high inflation and cuts in social sector spending. But the President said that he will mount a vigorous campaign both internally and externally for means to minimise the likely negative impact of the salary increase for public servants. Jagdeo however confirmed that the award will have implications for many of Guyana's international agreements and said that it entailed hard work over the next 45 days "to minimise the potential dislocation". On the issue of possible retrenchment as a consequence of government honouring the arbitration award, the President noted that the tribunal's award spoke about public sector modernisation. "Within the context of public sector modernisation we are going to approach that issue. There will not be any spiteful retrenchment", the President said. He noted that the tribunal majority recommended and the unions accepted under the public sector modernisation programme that there needs to be a more efficient public service. Jagdeo however declined to comment on the model of public sector modernisation that the government intended to pursue, only saying that government had ideas on how it can raise the professional standard of the public service. "At this point in time I do not want to make a policy statement on the matter unless I discuss it with the people who are going to be affected", he said. In response to a question from a journalist as to whether he was satisfied with the performance of the public service, the President said that "there were people in the public service who were top notch professionals and others who were not". But Jagdeo echoed a position by Labour Minister, Dr Henry Jeffrey when he made it clear that notwithstanding government's stated commitment to pay the increases, he was disappointed that the tribunal had not come up with a consensus position. Dr Ganga, a Bank of Guyana economist has distanced himself from the award citing what he said were serious procedural lapses on the part of the tribunal and alleging among other things that the tribunal was a two-man affair and that he was not privy to the final award until Tuesday when it was announced at the Hotel Tower. "There are serious claims of breaches of procedures in the working of the tribunal. If this is true that such is the case, then this would have serious consequences in the future for the arbitration process in Guyana", the President said, adding that Jeffrey was currently looking into these matters. In his minority report, Ganga had alleged that the neutrality of the Chairman of the tribunal, Armstrong and the unions' representative, Thomas was "not a given", the terms of reference of the tribunal were ignored and that "threats were made to tribunal members and government representatives at the last sitting of the tribunal..." President Jagdeo also expressed concern at remarks made by Armstrong in which he alleged that he was subjected to pressure by the government. Armstrong on Monday threatened to go to the international and region media if pressuring phone calls from whom he described as government officials continued. On Tuesday, Armstrong told reporters that every time he got a call from a government person he had three persons listening in to the call. "I want to state that I, at no time attempted, nor did I instruct anyone, to be engaged in any such activity. My Cabinet colleagues have also distanced themselves from this allegation. This should be clarified", the President emphasised. Jeffrey announced on Wednesday that Chief Labour Officer, Mohamed Akeel will mount an enquiry into the conduct of the tribunal's deliberations. Jagdeo said that government did not consider not paying or paying the award based on the result of Akeel's investigation. He made it clear that the investigation is to avoid setting a precedent in the future because of its likely implications for future arbitration awards. The President could not give specific figures as to the cost to the treasury of the pay award. He said he had heard figures of $300 million additional for this year and some $600 million for 2000. "These figures are totally wrong, but I do not want at this point to get into figures", the president said. Sources told Stabroek News that with the increases the wage bill for next year would be in the vicinity of $1 billion.
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