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GEORGETOWN, Guyana, Thursday, January 16, 2020 (CMC) – The Guyana government, yesterday, labelled as “patently false”, a media report that President David Granger had awarded himself a salary increase.
The Ministry of Finance, in a statement, said that the report by the on-line publication, Citizens Report, on Tuesday, was false.
The statement said that had there been an increase in the President’s salary, there would have been a corresponding increase in the pensions received by the three ex-presidents, namely Bharat Jagdeo, Samuel Hinds and Donald Ramotar.
“If Citizens Report was not so bent on causing public mischief, a quick check of the pensions of any of the three ex-Presidents would have shown that they have remained the same, since 2015.
“The Ministry wishes to remind readers that it is Mr. Jagdeo, who caused the law governing Presidential pensions to be changed to 7/8 of the salary of the current President, instead of 7/8 of the salary of the President at the time he demits office,” the statement said.
The Ministry of Finance said it is unfortunate, that as the country enters the elections season, “the issue of a well-deserved increase in wages and salaries for public servants, who, under the PPP/C (People’s Progressive Party/Civic) administration, were financially impoverished and subjected to poor working conditions, should be twisted into a blatantly false claim.
“It is worth recapping that this latest increase in the minimum wage represents an overall increase of 77 percent, since the A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance for Change (APNU+AFC) coalition took office in 2015. This is a tangible demonstration of the government’s commitment to building a good life for all Guyanese, as we enter the Decade of Development.”
The statement said that it is also unfortunate that attempts were made to impugn the Constitutional Order, which was signed by Minister of Finance, Winston Jordan, on December 2, 2019, well within the life of the Parliament, which was dissolved on December 29, 2019.
“The Ministry wishes to exhort the reporters of Citizens Report to become more acquainted with the tenets of good reporting, rather than pander to their handlers and do a disservice to their readers,” the statement added.
Guyanese go to the polls on March 2 to elect a new government.
It is hardly surprising that Mr. Jagdeo and his cronies would engage in untruths and fake news as he emulates the US President with this type of news, right upon the heels of the Guyana elections.
If he really has the country’s best interest at heart, as he continues to spout off, he should try encouraging Guyanese nationals, at home and abroad, to aspire to a prosperous and happy nation, with hope for all, and for once in his life, eradicate the “me me mentality” and replace it with the “We, Us and Our” mentality and be Guyanese, first and last.
He has had so many years in the seat of power, accumulating his many palatial dwellings, on the backs of the Guyanese taxpayers, while so many of us were left behind, and the Guyanese Public servants treated like some of the world’s worst.