BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – THE Federal Government will today make a determination at the Cabinet level, whether public servants will be given a double salary for the Christmas season as was sometimes done in the past.
Prime Minster Dr. the Hon. Timothy Harris was asked about a possible double salary for public servants at his press conference yesterday (Nov. 29), and he explained that the Government is contemplating its move with regards to that.
“We too are contemplating. We are contemplating in the context of a responsibility to be fiscally prudent. We are contemplating in the context of the realities of significant damage having occurred in the country. We are contemplating in the context that we want to prioritize the balancing of people’s lives. Those who have had their roof damaged, those who are still carrying their tarpaulins, we would want, of course, to respond to those in a timely way. Yet we understand that we have set a brave tradition across the world, for there are few, if any other country, which would have provided a double salary. And so, in a sense, maybe having performed so excellently, persons do not do all the contemplation which we have to do as a responsible Government.”
Many people have speculated that the Government might not pay double salary this year, as it has spent large sums of money to assist several sectors of the economy that were hardest hit by the passage of the two hurricanes – Irma and Maria.
The Federation recorded millions of dollars in damage, with the Government recording over EC$100M in public sector damage.
Dr. Harris however informed that today Cabinet would meet, assuring that at the end of that meeting “there will be a definitive statement with respect to that matter”.
Over the last several years, the past and present Governments had given bonus salaries to public servants.
Members of the St. Kitts-Nevis Labour Party had called on the Government at their recent press conference to pay the bonus.
That call came as the party claimed that officials of the government had been pushing the notion of being fiscally prudent in their management of the economy.
