By GHK Lall
It was always a foregone conclusion that public servants were going to get a raise. It was just a matter of when, and how much. For even a callous PPP Government, a clever president, and an army of calculating and cute (by too far) propagandizing comrades could only stay deaf and dumb, and play dead, on the issue of some form of relief money for a suspected, still troubling, believed disloyal public service. To boot, it has earned a sturdy reputation as being a PNC stronghold, notwithstanding all the exploits of the modern-day PPP witch hunters and those who get their kicks from purges. Some money had to be found, and shared out to public servants. Plenty of purposes are served from what should have taken place a long time ago, when others were being cushioned from a scarring cost of living environment.
This is how I assessed where the issue of an increase in pay for public servants stood. Now, regarding the questions and concerns about when and how much, both have been answered. My first reaction was 8% is 8%, and it is better than zero percent. In Guyanese, it is a ‘li’l something’ to help deal with the many grueling challenges day. God himself knows that it doesn’t mean much, but any ‘li’l thing’ makes a difference, no matter how ‘maagah.’
The second reaction was that the PPP Government and the preening President know how to insult public servants, rub it in, and show them who is boss; who are the ones calling the shots. Politically, it is intended to break the spirit of the stubborn, and to force both the fierce and the passive to eat crow. Stay quiet, keep calm, and better could be on the way. Or, to put another way, learn how to deal with us (PPP Government) on our terms, surrender to subjugation, and all will be well. Good things come to those who behave themselves, toe the line, get with the program. The third thought that came was that Government and President now have an answer to the United States Ambassador, Excellency Lynch, and her persistent, and frankly inconveniently annoying, messages about inclusion and spreading the wealth for the benefit of all Guyanese including, the unsaid by her, PNC supporters.
Fourth, when I consider that this 8% pay raise is across the board, this means that senior officers, up to and including Permanent Secretaries, and heads of department, are part of the peace and joy and goodwill extended by the PPP Government. Now I am not one to begrudge anybody coming in for an extra dollar, but the people at the top of the pay chain, too? C’mon, Dr. President, this can’t be happening? And constitutional officeholders also, for crying out loud? Now this adds insult to injury because most of the senior categories are above, at, or near seven-digits (a million) in monthly pay. Their 8% salary raise translates to a whole month’s pay for the average public servant having to make do with $74-75,000 a month in a hard Guyana ‘guava season.’ Allowances alone of some senior public servants and constitutional officeholders are enough to help them to manage their living expenses, with plenty of room to spare. For splurging on luxuries; or saving for tough political times.
Putting on another hat, it fits extremely tightly. This would be the everyday financial hat. Beginning on the generous side, 8% for someone making $100,000 per month is $8,000 and after taxes, leaves $5,600, give or take, in actual increased take home money. Using the baseline of the average of $70,000+ monthly, the 8% raise of pay is about $6,000, with a few hundred dollars snatched monthly by the tax man. Now I introduce that moving target call prices or, their accumulated pains, known as cost of living, or a basket of goods, basics only. As is known and accepted far and wide, public servants (most Guyanese) are pulling their hair out of their heads in their struggles to cope with spiraling prices on just about everything. Like I said earlier, 8%, be it $8,000 or $6,000, helps in some small ways. But it really does not make a lot of difference in a time when prices for the simple ingredients of a basic pot of food are racing away from ordinary citizens, and hurt like hell.
To sum all of this up, the President’s long delayed and shortchanging 8% increase in pay is not much of a gamechanger, in that $8,000, or $6,000, lacks the buying power and staying power. It doesn’t make those close to the bottom of the economic ladder experience any sense of relief. It is negligible in the bigger picture of daily existence. It fuels further frustrations. In a country that boasts some of the most mouthwatering statistical numbers anywhere on the globe, for the PPP Government and President Ali to offer what is less than US$1 a day for a pay increase is a slap in the face. It my book, it is intended to be deliberately degrading, especially when compared to what some other sectors in Guyanese life were awarded. My last word on this 8% pay raise is that nobody would be raising the rafters in celebration. Looks like Guyanese public servants got more than a whitewash for Christmas, they also got a Blue Christmas, as a parting gift from the PPP and President, so that they greet the New Year in style.
