Published 29 November 2017
Buckie Got It, St. Kitts and Nevis News Source
PM: Double Salary Announcement On Thursday
Written by LK Hewlett
St. Kitts and Nevis (WINN); Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Timothy Harris says the Cabinet will make an announcement on Thursday (Nov 30) if the government will be paying a double salary to its employees in December.
Prime Minister Harris said at a press conference on Wednesday that despite the fact that the government is facing a more than $150 million hurricane damage tab and other financial commitments, his Cabinet is considering paying the civil servants the extra salary as a bonus.
“With respect to the double salary or bonus, we too are contemplating, we are contemplating in the context of a responsibility to be fiscally prudent. We are contemplating in the context of the realities of significant damage having occurred in the country, we are contemplating in the context that we want to prioritize the balancing of people’s lives. Those who have had their roof damaged, those who are still carrying their tarpaulins, we would want of course to respond to those in a timely way; and yet we understand that we have set a brave tradition across the world, for there are few, if any other country, which would have provided a double salary. And so in a sense, maybe having performed so excellently, persons do not do all the contemplation which we have to do, as a responsible government.
“Tomorrow though, the Cabinet meets and I can assure you at the end of that Cabinet meeting, there will be a definitive statement with respect to that matter.”
With the Concerned Citizens Movement (CCM) members of the Team Unity administration staring down the barrel of a local election, many have posited that an announcement of double salary would be made prior to the ringing of the bell to announce a December election date on Nevis.
