If it is considered economically expedient to do so, public servants in Anguilla who had to endure salary deductions in 2009 and 2010 until February 2013, will be repaid in full by December 31, 2017.
That is the effect of the Public Service Salaries (Temporary) Reduction Act, 2013, passed in the Anguilla House of Assembly on Thursday, February 28. The passage of the legislation marks the cut-off date for the reductions, meaning that Government will no longer be accruing further debt owed to the public service. The total debt stands at thirty-two million dollars.
The Bill for the Act was introduced in the House of Assembly by Chief Minister and Minister of Finance, Hubert Hughes.“Government is mindful that expenditure must be reduced,” he said. “In examining the annual budget, it is apparent that the public service is one of the largest costs to Government. The growing debt, arising from the deferral of salaries and allowances, threatens to undermine Government’s efforts to reduce the overall deficit and bring its budget into balance.
“The Bill proposes to lawfully implement the current rate, at which salaries and allowances are paid, as the substantive rate of pay for all public officers and elected and appointed officials of Government until 31 December 2017.”
Minister of Social Development, Edison Baird, noted that the Government had to put into effect a cut-off date for the reductions as the debt was increasing by $870, 000 per month. He stated that had certain projects come on a stream, to generate the expected revenues, the Government would have been in a position to repay the public service debt before.
Opposition Leader, Evans Rogers, also made a similar statement but pointed to certain extravagances in expenditure. He was of the view that the savings could have helped to prevent the public servants waiting until 2017 for the payment of the money owed to them.
The relevant sections of the Act, regarding the debt owed to the public service, read as follows:
“Notwithstanding anything in any written law, contract, order, award or agreement from March 01, 2013 to December 31, 2017, the monthly salary payable to a person who is the holder of an office set out in Part 1 of the Second Schedule shall be 10 per cent less than his or her salary payable for the month of June, 2009 and a further 5 per cent less the salary paid for June 2010…
“Notwithstanding anything in written law, contract, order, award or agreement, from March 01, 2013 to December 31, 2017 an allowance shall be 15 per cent less than the allowance payable for the month of June, 2009 and a further 7.5 per cent less than the allowance paid for the month of June 2010.
“If it considers that it is economically expedient to so do, the Executive Council may, by way of – a local statutory instrument, reinstate the salary scale that was payable in June 2009; and an order, repay by lump sum or instalments, the salaries and allowances accrued between July 01, 2009 to February 28, 2013, and this repayment shall be made in full by December 31, 2017.
“Notwithstanding subsection 1, the Executive Council may authorise the repayment of the accrued salaries or any portion of the accrued salaries to any person referred to in the First Schedule in a manner that it sees fit.”
The Act will come into force on a date appointed by the Governor by notice published in the Official Gazette.
