Latibeaudiere A SUBCOMMITTEE of the Central Bank has found that the salary of the Governor was in line with existing guidelines and there's no need for a roll-back as recommended by the Walker Report.
Chaired by Cabinet Secretary, Dr. Carlton Davis, the subcommittee was established in March, 2000, and completed its work in February this year, clearing Bank of Jamaica (BOJ) head Derick Latibeaudiere whose salary was at the centre of the public sector controversy in 1999.
The BOJ chief had long maintained that the central bank had not been guilty of any wrongdoing.
The recommendation that the salaries of the Governor and his deputy, Colin Bullock, be cut was contained in a January, 2000, report presented to the Government by Ambassador Herbert Walker, a former BoJ head. Ambassador Walker was asked by Prime Minister P.J. Patterson to probe the issues which led, in several cases, to what was regarded as a breach of the Government's wage guidelines among the hierarchy of the public sector.
During the nationwide debate which the controversy triggered, it was found that many in the top league were receiving multi-million dollar pay packages with a slew of allowances attached. The BOJ Governor's total package was reported to be in the region of $9 million, and Mr. Bullock in excess of $5 million per annum.
Mr. Walker was asked to look at salary packages at six public sector entities and he reported that "it would appear that, with the exception of the Port Authority of Jamaica, pay increases granted did not fulfill either the approval process required by Cabinet and/or the Act which set up the relevant agencies."
Following the Walker Report, a subcommittee of the Central Bank conducted its own probe into the salary packages of the bank's top executives. It examined whether Government wage guidelines were exceeded and, if so, whether there should be a rollback. However, there was consensus that there was "no reasonable basis for a rollback". The subcommittee's findings were recently presented to Parliament's Public Accounts Committee (PAC) by Robert Martin, deputy financial secretary at the Ministry of Finance.
The Government has supported the subcommittee's position. "We are satisfied ... and it is pretty much accepted," Information Minister Maxine Henry-Wilson told The Gleaner. "If you roll back (salaries), not only would you be violating some collective bargaining agreement, but in addition you might find that people take you to court."
The Government's position, she said, was not an indication that the Walker recommendations were not considered. "I think it points us in some directions where the high level committee will now have to look," she added. Set up by the Prime Minister at the height of the pay controversy, the high level committee is expected to approve salary packages in excess of $3 million.
In dismissing the recommendations of the Walker Report, the subcommittee found that movements in salary between April 1, 1996 and 1999 were made based on a salary regrading recommended by the Hay consultants, as well as annual and incremental increases.
"The Hay recommendations had their genesis in an Industrial Disputes Tribunal award of 1995 and the work of the consultants and their recommendations were known to the BOJ Board and the Ministry of Finance's (Public Service Establishments Divi-sion)," said the document. This would have resulted in Mr. Latibeaudiere's basic salary jumping from around $3.4 million at that time to $6.5 million at the time of the furore surrounding remuneration of public sector executives.
The committee found that other controversial allowances such as "assisted passage" have been a feature of the contracts of Governors for the past 17 years and that it was a benefit still enjoyed by the staff at all grades in the Central Bank.
Ambassador Walker is refusing to speak on the matter. "I have no comment," he said when contacted at his home recently. He declined The Gleaner's offer to fax him a copy of the BOJ's subcommittee report.
Cabinet Secretary, Dr. Carlton Davis, did not return calls. Neither did Mr. Latibeaudiere nor Mr. Bullock, who are also BoJ Board members. Other members of the subcommittee were Professor Kenneth Hall, Mrs. Patricia Hayle and Mr. Jeffrey Hall.
