BELIZE CITY, Thurs. July 22, 2021– Yesterday, a leaked letter from the Cabinet Secretary, Stuart Leslie, to CEOs of the various Government ministries confirmed that their salaries and allowances were not cut along with the salaries of the rest of the country’s public officers in early June of this year.
The letter, dated 2 July, states, “Cabinet has approved that all Chief Executive Officers’ salaries and allowances remain as recommended in May 2020 with no further cuts.”
The letter even urges the CEO’s to liaise with their financial officers to ensure they get their proper salaries and allowances.
The contents of the letter, and the revelation that some of the highest-paid members of the public sector were spared a pay cut, were a slap in the face of the country’s unions, who protested for at least five weeks against the now legislated salary cuts.
CEOs earn a base salary of about $76,300 annually. In May 2020, a reduction in gratuity and allowances for CEOs was put into effect by the Barrow Administration, and it has now been revealed that this is the only reduction in earnings that CEO’s across Government ministries will see.
The president of the Public Service Union (PSU), Dean Flowers, told Amandala that the members of the PSU, in light of what appears to be preferential treatment for government CEOs, feel disheartened and demoralized and are now looking into possible legal actions in response to this move by the Government. He said that they are saddened by GOB’s “Animal Farm” approach to the wage bill and he remarked that in many instances, CEOs perform the least work within the public service.
He added that the May 2020 reduction being referred to in the Cabinet Secretary’s letter applies only to allowances for gratuity and entertainment — stipends that are separate and apart from a CEO’s yearly salary. He said that at no time did the government mention that CEOs would be exempted from the legislated salary cuts and that they too have been defined as public servants by the former Solicitor General, Nigel Hawk.
As mentioned, the union is now considering its legal options in regard to this most recent development.