Tyrone Reid, Enterprise Reporter

Golding, Simpson Miller and Patterson

While not being the largest in the country's history, Prime Minister Bruce Golding's Cabinet might be the most expensive ever, as it will cost the country close to $66 million per annum tocover the basic salaries of the 18 members.

Prime Minister Golding yesterday named 11 state ministers and two parliamentary secretaries. This compares to the 12-member second-tier leaders appointed by Prime Ministers Patterson and Simpson Miller during their tenures.

Golding's naming of his second-tier leaders will push the annual salary bill of the political directorate to over $100 million. The $66 million for Cabinet members does not include all the allowances payable to them, which can run close to $700,000 per year for some ministers.

Meanwhile, Don Wehby, former senior executive at GraceKenndey Limited, who has been named minister Without portfolio in the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service, will receive his full salary as a minister from government. However, GraceKennedy will pay Wehby the difference between his ministerial salary and what he previously obtained from the business conglomerate. This has been disclosed by Douglas Orane, chairman Douglas Orane, Chairman and CEO of GraceKennedy Limited, who told The Sunday Gleaner that Wehby has been granted two years leave of absence in response to government's request for him to join the Cabinet.

Orane said Wehby resigned on Thursday from the boards of the parent company and its subsidiaries, eping with the provisions of Ministry Paper No.19/2002 which sets out the conduct of ministers.

One feature that Golding's Cabinet has that Simpson Miller, and Patterson's last Cabinet did not have is the position of Deputy Prime Minister, which attracts a higher salary level than that of a Cabinet Minister.

However, the nation's eighth Prime Minister defended the size of his Cabinet during the swearing in ceremony on Friday. Golding argued that the issue of size is relative and that some of our Caribbean neighbours with smaller populations have larger Cabinets.

"Guyana, which has a smaller population than we do, has 23 members of its Cabinet; Trinidad has 24 members in the Cabinet. And, it would have been good, it would have been politically correct to try to look at a number that would satisfy the concerns of big government," argued Golding. "An 18-member Cabinet does not necessarily signify big government."

Golding, who also noted that he was "mindful of the enormous expectations that exist about the government" that he leads, reasoned that the size of the Cabinet is a means to an end.

"Therefore in my judgement there was need for me to ensure that there was adequate policy direction in order to ensure that the government would focus on the variety of tasks that we need to fulfil in order to make real, make good on the mandate that we have received," he explained.

Notwithstanding, Golding's Cabinet will cost the country approximately $15 million dollars per annum more than the previous Cabinet, which was headed by the country's seventh Prime Minister, Portia Simpson Miller. The country's first female head of government slashed her Cabinet by three to 14 ministers. Former Prime Minister, P.J. Patterson, her predecessor had 17 members in his Cabinet. There has not been an increase in the salaries payable to parliamentarians and the political directorate since October 2002.

P.J.'s last Cabinet (17)

Prime Minister (1)$4,706,344

Finance Minister (1) $3,813,092

Ministers (15) $52,959,615

Cabinet total $61,479,051

Portia's Cabinet (14)

Prime Minister (1)$4,706,344

Finance Minister (1) $3,813,092

Ministers (12)$42,367,692

Cabinet total $50,887,128

Bruce's Cabinet (18)

Prime Minister (1)$4,706,344

Deputy PM (1)$4,118,493

Minister of Finance (1)$3,813,092

Cabinet Ministers (15) $52,959,615

Cabinet total $65,597,544