CASTRIES, St. Lucia – One of three political parties down to contest general elections expected before year end has called on Prime Minister Stephenson King to roll back the salaries of Ministers and opposition Parliamentarians to what they were in 1997.
The leader of the Lucian Peoples Movement (LPM) Therold Prudent said this should either be done now or it will be done should his party win the elections.
In a weekend statement Prudent noted that neither the ruling United Workers Party (UWP) nor the previous St. Lucia Labour Party (SLP) government have had much success in improving the state of the local economy, reducing unemployment, curbing crime, containing inflation and providing the people with a higher standard of living.
“While the lot of the ordinary St. Lucian has not improved, parliamentarians are enjoying an astronomical increase in their salaries that is not justified by their performance,” Prudent noted.
Prudent whose LPM was officially launched here last year said that both the present and former Prime Ministers have increased the national debt, increased the percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) that is used to service that debt, and have used the island’s financial resources lavishly and recklessly.
He added that the justification used by former Prime Minister Kenny Anthony for accepting the recommendations to pay those huge salary increases has not made Ministers more efficient and more productive.
“The salary increase was one of the first actions taken by the SLP administration when it came to office in late 1997 and it just goes to show how bent that administration was in first taking care of its own, instead of first attending the many manifesto promises it made to the people,” the LPM leader added.
In 1998 a Marius Monrose led Salary Review Commission, after undertaking a thorough probe, agreed to increase the salaries of Parliamentarians, Government Ministers, and the President of the Senate among other officials. (CMC)
