JAMAICA'S OPPOSITION LEADER Bruce Golding yesterday rejected a number of the recommendations proposed in the report of the Oliver Clarke-led Parliamentary Salaries Review Committee.
Mr. Golding was making his contribution to the debate on the report of a working group of parliamentarians that spent the past year looking at the Clarke Report.
"I had hoped that after the experience we had had over several decades, this committee would have found a way to take the issue out of the conundrum that it has been in to bring to it a certainty and a finality that would command general acceptance," Mr. Golding told the House of Representatives.
He claimed the recommendations put forward by the Clarke Committee were "confusing and contradictory".
AUTOMATIC ADJUSTMENTS
In arguing his point, he noted that Recommendation Three suggested that a Permanent Salaries Committee be established to review salaries every two years. He said that recommendation was contradicted by Recommendation Six, which suggested there should be annual automatic adjustments tied to inflation.
"If Recommendation Six is this automatic adjustment related to a formula based on the rate of inflation in the country, then the question arises: 'Why would you need a Parliamentary Salaries Committee?" he asked.
Among Mr. Golding's other concerns was whether salaries should be linked to inflation. He suggested that high inflation would, therefore, be rewarded with high salary increases.
After Opposition Members of Parliament Abe Dabdoub and Mike Henry, and Omar Davies, Minister of Finance and Planning, made their contributions, Peter Phillips, Leader of Government Business, closed the debate.
Mr. Phillips amended the resolution under consideration to establish a special select committee to take another look at the recommendations and report to Parliament on or before January 31, 2006. This will allow further views to be considered before implementation.
The resolution was unanimously accepted by the House.
