KINGSTON, Jamaica – Prime Minister Andrew Holness has sought to assure the public that the political directorate will be held to account for the new salaries they will receive.
“We have established, and I will announce shortly, a series of accountability measures and I have said to my MPs and the ministers that the cost of this policy is accountability. Every single MP, all ministers are now committed to ensuring that they earn the salary,” said Holness who was speaking at a function in the southern parish of St. Catherine on Friday.
The Prime Minister said he was pleased with society’s call for accountability and performance standards given the recent salary adjustments under the compensation review.
He pointed out that the entire public service will have to adhere to a performance-based compensation system.
“We have focused on improving the compensation element; the second phase now is performance-based renumeration systems. This will be implemented both for the executive and the legislature, and it will also be the general trend for the public service. The idea is that we must now claim increased productivity, having addressed the longstanding issue of the wage levels in the public service,” he noted.
Holness said the legislators understand that having got this increase they must now prove to the Jamaican people “that the [salaries] are justified and they understand that; they understand that the accountability issues are foremost in the mind of the people and that we must do tangible things.”
Holness made the comments following last week’s announcement that politicians, including those at the local government level, are set to benefit from massive increases in their salaries over a three-year period ending April 2025.
In some cases, salaries have been increased three-fold.
The increases, part of the Government’s compensation restructuring for the public service, were announced last Tuesday by Finance and the Public Service Minister Dr Nigel Clarke during a lengthy statement in the House of Representatives.
