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Posted: Monday 25 January, 2016 at 2:43 PM

Brantley: If I do two jobs, shouldn’t I get two salaries?

The Hon. Mark Brantley
By: Terresa McCall, SKNVibes.com

    BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – ADDRESSING questions of him collecting two salaries as a member of both the Federal and the Nevis Island Administration Cabinets, the Hon. Mark Brantley took his accusers to task, noting that they did nothing about it when they had a chance to change the rules.

     

    “I am a little bit bemused because I didn’t write the Constitution. (It) was written a long time ago and what is of particular surprise to me, is much of those making the noise were in office for nearly 20 years and therefore had ample opportunity to create a Constitution of their own liking,” Brantley said last week during his appearance on the Government’s radio programme ‘Working For You’.

    Brantley questioned whether those who are making noise about the situation are doing so on a matter of principle or quantity. He also questioned if he is not owed two salaries, seeing that he has two jobs.

    “When I was Leader of the Opposition in the Federal Parliament I got a salary and I also received salary as Deputy Premier. There was no noise there! And so for me, its puzzling that moving from that situation where I’m now a full minister in both Cabinets, that you now hear this loud clamor. Well, what is it? Is it a clamor about the amount or the principle? Because if it’s the principle, then that clamor should have existed eight or nine years that I’ve been in Parliament, because I’ve always received something here and something there.”

    Brantley said there are others who attempted to hold the same status as he did or does have but were rejected by the people. He suggested that the former administration seems not to be serious about the double salary talk because it squandered 20-years worth of opportunity to change the status quo.

    “I must speak to the seriousness of any commentator that having had the power for two decades to change the framework they did not, but after you demit office you start complaining about things that are permissible and completely allowed under that framework. That tells me you are not serious, because if you had a serious concern then you had ample opportunity. One term, two terms, three terms, four terms, absolutely nothing, not even a comma in the Constitution has been changed since we assumed Independence 32 years ago, and of those the former regime was there for 20. So it gives you the very real sense that those who are making the clamor weren’t serious about this.”

    Speaking to the benefits of being in two Cabinets, Deputy Premier Brantley said it allows him a closer view of policy and he has the opportunity to make greater input on behalf of the people of Nevis.

    “I think it allows me a bird’s eye view of what’s happening both in Nevis and in St. Kitts. It gives me a much stronger voice in the Federal Cabinet to speak to matters that impact the people of Nevis. I think that for a long time we had laws, regulations, rules, policies being articulated at the Federal level that impact the people of Nevis as a constituent element of the Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis…”

    Brantley said his dual status is “a lot of work, but I am grateful to the people” who elected him to serve.

     
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