G.O.B.’s Moves on Honorarium ‘Not Necessarily’ Illegal

Patrick Faber

The Minister of Education considers it a point of pride that at least he is not being accused of ‘stealing’ the honorarium money, even drawing comparison to the infamous ‘Corozal Pibil Party’ of a few years ago. He also concedes that the Government, having received the approval of the Ministry of Finance could have called on the National Assembly for its approval. But could a legal case be made, first for the validity of the payments, and second, by teachers who may feel deprived of their funds as a result of actions caused by the B.N.T.U. and not the Government? Faber talks about both aspects.

Patrick Faber, Minister of Education

“In fact, I think those teachers may well have a case to make for their full salaries for those days, save the part that the schools’ calendar is amended and with that amendment the number of days can be changed to make up the one hundred and eighty days, and in that event, nobody can really claim payment for days that make up the one hundred and eighty calendar days if the calendar is being amended in the right manner by the Chief (Education Officer), consulting the stakeholders. But for my friend Mr. Courtenay and all the others who are making such ridiculous claims to say that it ought to have gone right away, we should have gotten the permission of the National Assembly, which I will say is not necessarily altogether wrong- that could have been one way of doing it- but the way that we’ve done it is not necessarily illegal and that is my point to him.”