BALFORD HENRY

Observer writer

A Special Parliamentary Group (SPG), appointed to review proposed changes in salaries, allowances and terms and conditions of work for parliamentarians, has recommended that increases currently due be delayed until 2006, and stipulated that these payments should not be retroactive.

The SPG, headed by Finance Minister Dr Omar Davies, was formed to examine 40 recommendations put forward by the Oliver Clarke-led Parliamentary Salaries Committee, which sat in 2003.

The Clarke Committee has put forward a number of proposals that will benefit parliamentarians and senators in the long run.

On Tuesday, the SPG report was tabled as Ministry Paper number 23/05 in the House of Representatives and will be debated later, based on a motion moved on behalf of the prime minister, by the Leader of the House Dr Peter Phillips.

It showed that the parliamentarians agreed with 29 of the Clarke Committee’s proposals, disagreed with seven and were undecided on three. There was no recommendation affixed to one, which proposed the installation of internet booths and additional telephone lines for parliamentarians, and for cabinet ministers to be allowed to use their office ICAS codes to make official overseas calls outside their offices.

Salaries for parliamentarians have doubled since 1999, moving from $1.08 million in 1999 to $2.2 million in 2002. The last increase was granted in October, 2002. However, following a public outcry against the level of increases, Prime Minister PJ Patterson put on hold further increases that were due on April 1, 2003; April 1, 2004; and April 1, 2005, until the Clarke Committee had submitted its report.

The Clarke Committee’s report was received by Parliament in November 2003, but Patterson, still wary of public resentment, proposed the formation of the SPG, comprising members of both Houses as well as both sides of the House, to assess that report and make further recommendations.

The SPG was comprised of: Davies, Dr Peter Phillips, Dr Morais Guy, Derrick Kellier, Michael Peart, Senator Syringa Marshall-Burnett, Senator Burchell Whiteman and Senator AJ Nicholson of the People’s National Party (PNP); and Audley Shaw, Derrick Smith and Senator Anthony Johnson of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP).

The SPG agreed with the Clarke Committee on:

. discontinuing the link between the salaries of permanent secretaries and cabinet ministers;

. establishing a permanent salaries committee to examine and recommend periodic increases;

. separating their emoluments into three separate components – parliamentary compensation, parliamentary expense reimbursements and constituency reimbursements;

. payment of taxable allowance to the leaders of government and opposition business in both Houses;

. payment of subsistence and mileage allowances to out-of-town MPs and senators;

. provision of a constituency office for each MP and increase in allowance to operate constituency office to $50,000;

. leader of the opposition to be paid 70 per cent of the prime minister’s salary as well as an allowance to run that office;

.duty concession on motor vehicles purchased by parliamentarians to be discontinued and replaced with an allowance of the same monetary value paid in equal installments over five years;

. parliamentarians’ compensation to be subject to taxation similar to private citizens;

. annual three-week leave provision for ministers each year;

. taxable honorarium for senators;

. expansion of Gordon House by acquiring adjoining properties; and

. specific audit of SESP funds by the Auditor-General.

The SPG disagreed with the Clarke Committee on:

. accountability and transparency;

. payments to MPs and senators;

same pay for the speaker as a cabinet ministers;

. MPs to publicly declare all sources of income and benefits earned by them and major assets;

.discontinuation of pension scheme;

. same death benefits as civil servants; and

. using SESP funds to implement some of the recommendations.

There was also indecisiveness in terms of increasing the base pay for the MPs, as well as the issue of similar minimum pension for parliamentary pensioners as civil servants.