BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – IN an attempt to nail the owner of the public relations and communications outlet, Disseminateit, to the proverbial cross, Parliamentary Representative for Constituency Number Five, Hon. Shawn Richards said that Charles Jong should let the nation know how much money he is being paid by the Federal government and management of the St. Kitts-Nevis Electricity Department Ltd.
Richards made this pronouncement, among others, yesterday (Dec. 14) at a press conference to address the reasons why he and the other four Opposition Members of Parliament deliberately absented themselves from the 2012 Budget Presentation and Debate and also in response to statements made in a press release issued by Disseminateit.
“…The same individual who put out that press release, Charles Jong, should tell the public whether or not he has a contract from government which pays him over $225 000 per year, and he should explain to the public what it is he does for that particular contract. Because, when we look at the amount that he is saying is received by five persons on the opposition benches, his salary is just about the same, if not more than the total salary of all the members of the opposition benches,” Richards said.
Earlier in his address, Richards explained who was responsible for setting the emoluments for Parliamentarians.
“The salary which is being paid to members of the Opposition was not set by us the members of the opposition. As a matter of fact, the current salaries that we are being paid, those salaries came about because of the fact that government had placed a committee to do a review for the salaries of Parliamentarians.
“Coming out of those particular recommendations, they went to Cabinet and Cabinet accepted the recommendations which were put forward by the committee. Persons would also remember that back then the ministers of government themselves received a 33 percent increase in salary while the regular civil servants received just about 10 or 20 percent increase in salary.”
The Parliamentarian noted that the monies Jong receives for one of his multiple contracts should be made public, which he suggested could be used to hire a few of the unemployed young persons who graduated from the Clarence Fitzroy Bryant College.
“He [Charles Jong] must also tell the public whether or not he has received a recent contract from the Electricity Department, simply to put out press releases to say that there is supposed to be an interruption in power supply. The monies that he is being paid for that particular contract, he should tell the public how much it is and whether or not the young persons who recently completed college who cannot find employment, if that same monies could not have been used to hire a couple of those young persons.”
Dr. Norgen Wilson and Cedric Liburd also came in for a roasting from Richards, who emphatically stated that his and other MPs on the Opposition Benches salaries are incomparable to the two men receive annually.
“There is a gentleman from Sandy Point who ran against me last election who is now being paid as an advisor to government in the Ministry of National Security. He lost and he is being paid over $80 000 per year, which is more than I am receiving as a Member of Parliament. But not only that, he is currently doing private practice and his vehicle can be seen at his office just about every day of the week. And the civil servants must ask themselves why should this gentleman be paid that type of monies when they who go to work eight hours per day cannot be paid the same amount and cannot receive such privileges.
“You have Cedric Liburd who ran against Eugene Hamilton last election, went so far as to take him to court, and here again is being paid as an advisor. As a matter of fact, the Prime Minister said to us during a budget debate or two ago, that persons over the age of 55 must retire because no longer can government afford to pay those persons. And so when you look at what is being paid to Cedric Liburd, again the question must be asked…you have young persons out there from college who cannot find employment in this country. And so, when Charles Jong is putting out such information, tell him that before he looks at the opposition benches and how we are being paid…because we go to parliament and we advocate on behalf of the people. We do parliamentary service within the different communities, within the different constituencies that we are elected to represent, and so he must tell us what benefits he is receiving.”
Richards said that MPs on the Opposition Benches receive a basic salary of EC$2 500 per month and allowances the total of EC$2 800.
“As a matter of fact, when you even look at the salary that is being paid, most of it is actually allowances, and the same allowances are being paid to ministers of government and even more. Our basic salary is just about $2 500 a month. You have a constituency allowance of $2 000 a month. All the ministers of government also receive that constituency allowance. You have travelling allowance, I think, of about $500; all the ministers of government receive it. And we know that when they go overseas they still collect per day, for each night they are overseas. We don’t have such benefits.
“We have an entertainment allowance of $300. So that when you total the allowances, the allowances $2 800, the salary itself $2 500; and we are not here arguing about what our salaries are, because regardless of the fact that that is the salary, we have also advocated for a cut in salary, not just for government ministers but for members of the opposition so as to send that message to the country that we are indeed in a very bad fiscal situation and we are leading by example.”
Richards also referred to the Prime Minister’s salary and urged the nation to question if Dr. Douglas deserves that amount of money after he had bankrupted the country.
“…When you look at the salary that we are being paid and the benefits, it’s not really much. But when you look at the fact that the Prime Minister is getting a salary of almost $20 000 per month and has bankrupted this country, has brought it to being number two in terms of indebtedness, number one in terms of crime, and you look at all the other areas in which he has failed this country, one must ask the question as to whether or not he is deserving of the salary that he is getting from the citizens of this country.”
A recent release issued by Charles Jong’s Disseminateit, headlined “Government paid $300,000.00 to Brantley, Richards, Hamilton, Amory, and Byron in 2011”, stated that the five Parliamentarians had come under heavy public criticism for failing to maintain a satisfactory attendance record for the Sittings of the National Assembly.
Making an assessment of their attendance in Parliament as against the salaries collected, the release noted: “What the majority of the general public may not have known was that all five of the opposition members collect a salary from the Government of St. Kitts and Nevis and the four elected members also collect a Constituency, Travel, and Entertainment Allowances. But all of the members of the opposition have a poor attendance record for the Sittings of the National Assembly.
The release also asked the question, “Did they work for it?”
“In 2011, the Hon. Mark A. G. Brantley was paid $69,600.00 by the Government and people of St. Kitts and Nevis covering his salary as a Member of Parliament (he collects a higher salary than the other opposition members because he holds the position of Leader of the Opposition) and his allowances. The Hon. Shawn Richards, Eugene Hamilton, and Vance Amory all collected $190,800.00 by the Government and people of St. Kitts and Nevis covering their salaries as Members of Parliament and their allowances. Senator Byron collected $39,600.00 for his salary as an appointed member and his allowances.
“In total, the members of the opposition bench of the St. Kitts and Nevis Federal legislature were paid $300,000.00 by the Government and people of St. Kitts and Nevis for the year 2011,” the release explained.
The writer of the release claimed that both the People’s Action Movement and the Concerned Citizens Movement had come under heavy criticism for failing to bring a single piece of legislation to the National Assembly, adding that “the general public has complained that all of the energy of the members of the opposition has been spent on submitting questions to the Prime Minister in the legislature to ask him silly questions rather than use their time and energy to draft or debate needed legislation to curb the social challenges that our nation presently faces”.
The writer categorically stated that all the opposition seems to have time and energy for, is to praise and highlight crime and to promote grief.
The release informed that the Opposition’s boycott has fueled calls for the government to revisit its policy in relation to payment of salaries and allowances to members of the opposition who refuse and fail to show up for work.
