No Cuts for C.E.O. Salaries?

The Public Service Union is speaking out following a leaked letter that guarantees C.E.O. salaries and allowances will not be touched.  The document, from the Office of the Prime Minister, dated July second and signed by Cabinet Secretary Stuart Leslie is addressed to all Chief Executive Officers in Ministries of the Government of Belize. It says Cabinet has approved that all C.E.O.s’ salaries and allowances will remain as recommended in May 2020 with no further cuts.  Earlier today, P.S.U. President Dean Flowers says this flies in the face of the recent ten percent salary cut imposed on public officers, teachers and frontline workers. 

Dean Flowers, President, P.S.U.

“These were measures taken under the Barrow Administration – for C.E.O.s for the period May 2020 to April 2021, they were to see a reduction in their housing and entertainment allowance from one thousand five hundred dollars a month to seven hundred and fifty dollars. That was one of the cuts levied on C.E.O.s – a reduction in their entertainment allowance and also there was a reduction in their gratuity from twenty percent to fifteen percent for the period first May 2020 to thirtieth April 2021. So absolutely no adjustment was made on the salaries of C.E.O.s. For us to have learnt now that they were not included in this salary adjustment, bear in mind that when the government came and presented its numbers on cost savings, they included every single public officer and the Attorney General will tell you that the former Solicitor General – I believe it was Nigel Hawke – has an opinion there that states that anybody that is paid from the public purse is classified as a public officer. So this adjustment was to apply to all public officers. We went from judges and magistrate’s being exempted to now C.E.O.s being exempted. When we did the calculation on the savings, when we ran the numbers, all of these individuals were included and that’s the reason why I say that we cannot trust the numbers that are being put out by the Ministry of Finance and this administration.”