Georgetown: The salary increases given to the Peoples Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Members of Parliament (MPs) by the coalition government has been deposited into a bank account.
This was disclosed by PPP General Secretary, Clement Rohee, during his weekly press conference at Freedom House recently.
Chief Whip of the PPP/C, Gail Teixeira last week said that the MPs were still meeting to reach a decision as to what they will be doing with the increases.
Opposition leader Bharrat Jagdeo told the media last month that the Party was mulling two options, one being to hand over the excesses to Charity every month or to return the money to the treasury with a cheque.
Then, Rohee could not say definitively what the PPP MPs will be doing with the increases that they have refused to accept, but stated that discussions were ongoing.
Now, with regard to the bank account, Rohee explained that it has been in existence for some time now. “Since June 1976 the PPP established a bank account at the Royal Bank of Canada now Republic Bank Guyana Limited. This account was established to facilitate PPP Members of Parliament making part of their Parliamentary salary available as a donation to the party, since the PPP MPs have been doing so on a voluntary basis. With the recent salary increases granted to the PPP MPs the Party took a decision that its current MPs will not be accepting the increases. All MPs were therefore obliged to take steps in keeping with the established practice and based on the recent party’s decision concerning salary increases,” Rohee said.
“My increase usually goes into a PPP bank account,” he declared. He admitted that the account has a substantial amount of money in it.
Opposition Leader, Bharrat Jagdeo had described the government’s salary increase for Parliamentarians and Ministers as “reprehensible,” chiding the David Granger administration for displaying double standards. The PPP/C also chastised the coalition government for the recent pay out of salary increases deeming the action as “unconscionable.”
The Party’s criticisms of the increase also stemmed from the APNU+ AFC government’s pronouncement that the economy was bankrupt when it assumed Office in May 2015.
The Opposition has since tabled a motion in the National Assembly to annul and reverse the increases that it deemed “astronomical.”
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