By Lynford Simpson, Staff Reporter
O'Meally Nelson
AS POSTMASTER General, Dr. Blossom O'Meally Nelson is not an employee of the Postal Corporation of Jamaica (PCJ) and receives a salary package in line with what is being paid to senior civil servants, Fay Sylvester, permanent secretary in the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Technology, said yesterday.
This was said at a sitting of Parliament's Public Accounts Committee (PAC), where Mrs Sylvester sought to set the record straight on how much was being paid to the former CEO of the Postal Corporation of Jamaica (PCJ).
But even as the permanent secretary sought to clear the air, Auditor-General, Adrian Strachan, was asked by the PAC yesterday to examine the salary package of the Postmaster General and report his findings to the committee.
The level at which Dr. O'Meally Nelson was being remunerated as CEO of the PCJ was questioned by the Public Sector Salaries Committee a month ago. The committee, which was set up by Prime Minister P.J. Patterson after revelations last year that some public servants were being remunerated above approved rates, contended the contract violates the $3 million per annum benchmark for public sector salaries. It was approved by PCJ chairman, Daniel Thwaites.
In a letter to the Auditor General dated November 13, and which was read before the PAC yesterday, Mrs Sylvester had a difficult time explaining why Dr. O'Meally Nelson was no longer employed to the PCJ.
But she hinted she may still oversee the commercialisation of the entity.
"The present arrangement is that she is to be the Postmaster General and we are to see how best we can do the commercialisation through the Postal Corporation of Jamaica," Mrs Sylvester said.
On the salary issue, the Permanent Secretary said the package of $5 million plus 25 per cent gratuity which was offered to Dr. O'Meally Nelson in 1999 when she was appointed CEO of the PCJ "coincided with the issuing of new salary guidelines for senior public officers by Government".
She also said the compensation package was subsequently revised to $3 million plus a motor vehicle allowance of $320,000.
According to the permanent secretary, the "confusion" over the amount being paid to the CEO had to do with a clause in her contract which said she would receive a net salary of $3 million after statutory deductions. The clause has since been changed to state the CEO shall receive a salary of a rate of $3 million per annum payable in equal monthly instalments.
Mrs Sylvester's letter said the board of the PCJ had expressed its "full confidence" in the work and value of its former CEO, and reiterated at no time was she paid outside of the Government's stated guidelines.
PAC chairman Audley Shaw said it was important the matter be cleared up as soon as possible to ensure there were no misconceptions and damage done to anyone's reputation.
