By LYNAIRE MUNNINGS

Tribune Staff Reporter

lmunnings@tribunemedia.net

FINANCIAL Secretary Simon Wilson defended the 58 per cent responsibility allowance increase senior civil servants have received, saying the real scandal is that the Police Commissioner and Defence Force Commodore only make $70,000 a year.

“Wages at the senior level of the public service are very, very low,” he said yesterday, adding The Bahamas does not offer enough money to retain the best and brightest officials in the service.

The little-known “responsibility allowance” is awarded to senior officials who “undertake duties that require a greater degree of skill or responsibility associated with the post”, according to State Minister for Public Service Pia Glover-Rolle.

 A document she tabled in the House of Assembly last week showed Cabinet approved an increase in responsibility allowance for 73 people on November 22.

 The secretary to the Cabinet now receives a $24,000 responsibility allowance, up from $18,000. The financial secretary gets a $22,000 allowance, up from $16,000. The auditor general, police commissioner and defence force commodore all receive a $20,000 allowance, up from $14,000. The treasurer, director of works and comptroller of customs receive a $10,000 allowance, up from $7,000.

 Twenty-six of the senior officials receive a $5,000 allowance, the lowest amount given to any official.

 Mr Wilson said he is concerned about the criticism and complaints over the increase, insisting nothing is scandalous about the matter.

 “This ain’t out of the ordinary,” he said. “It wasn’t done in secret, it wasn’t done in the darkness of the night. It was done quite transparently, except that the BPSU president decided he didn’t want the allowance to be annexed to his agreement that he signed as was done in the past. And then he turns around and attempts to create mischief.”

 Mr Wilson said the increases maintain parity with the Bahamas Educators Management Union (BEMU) and the Bahamas Public Services Union (BPSU), both of which recently ratified Industrial Agreements that boosted the allowances of their members.

 He said even though most senior civil servants are members of the BPSU, president Kimsely Ferguson refused to annex their increases to the recent Industrial Agreement, which explains why it was dealt with separately from other allowance increases people received.

 “For some reason, he decided to make a big deal of it,” Mr Wilson said. “I find this very disingenuous right here. BEMU got allowance increases. BNU got allowance increases. BPSU got an allowance increase. Why is there an issue?”

 “People have an issue because they are uninformed about what happens. For example, my deputy, he gets more allowance than what I get. That was negotiated with the government. He makes $50,000 in allowance. My allowance is $20,000. He gets housing allowance, I don’t get a housing allowance. But the people who are commenting, such as the politicians and Mr Ferguson, they are all aware of that. That’s not the only anomaly that we have.

 “People are making a big deal that the permanent secretary gets a $20,000 allowance. Well, if people would sit down and look at the permanent secretary’s salary, they’d realise their salaries in 15 years has gone up by $5,000.

 “The commissioner of police getting $20,000, making $70,000 a year. With all the responsibilities that he has, (people complaining) like that allowance is a big deal, like the world has come to an end.

 “Think of this now. The commissioner of police making $70,000 with all that responsibility. That should be the scandal. The commodore of the Defence Force, $70,000 a year, that’s with the $20,000 allowance. I don’t understand this.

 “I look at myself. You realise a senior manager in the Central Bank makes more than the financial secretary with my allowance? But yet still people are saying somehow that senior public officers with responsibility should work for less, be frowned upon to make a decent wage, and then we look around and question why the public service is underperforming.”

 Mr Wilson said even with the new allowances, the civil service will still lose middle managers who complain they can’t afford to take care of their families and have to go to the private sector.

 “It’s impossible (to keep good talent),” he said. “The same way you have doctors and nurses leaving, you have people who don’t look at the public service as a career because the salaries are too low. And you know what’s going to happen given this issue with the allowances? People gon’ say why should I be in the public sector where we getting an allowance of $10,000 allowance on my already depressed salary, which is then turned into a political controversy like we stealing money from the treasury?”