Briceño Administration Reinstates Allowances for C.E.O.s & H.O.D.s
Prime Minister John Briceño
The Public Service Union is up in arms today, having received a copy of a circular memorandum for the reinstatement of full allowances for C.E.O.s and heads of departments. The memo, signed by Cabinet Secretary Stuart Leslie and addressed to all chief executive officers of the different government ministries, is dated September eighth, 2022 and speaks to approval being granted to increase the employment contracts of C.E.O.s, as it relates to living and entertainment allowance. According to the official document, C.E.O.s will see that allowance increase from seven hundred and fifty dollars to one thousand, five hundred dollars monthly, and it is retroactive to July first, 2022. The leadership of the Public Service Union is outraged. But before we hear from the P.S.U., here’s how the P.M. justifies the reinstatement.
Prime Minister John Briceño
“Remember the C.E.O.s their allowances were cut. So what we are doing it is basically giving them what they had before the pandemic. Thank you, next question.”
Reporter
“But do you think that is needed?”
Prime Minister John Briceño
“You want to ask the C.E.O.s? I am sure they would answer….”
Reporter
“The thing is that the Belizean people are suffering economically…”
Prime Minister John Briceño
“You need to stop just saying things for saying it without the empirical evidence. If you look at the empirical, more and more Belizeans are working. Right now, the unemployment rate is at nine point two percent; that’s the lowest rate in probably the last five years. The new labour survey is going to be out soon and it shows that unemployment is going to go down even more. People are going back to work because of the work that our government has been doing. The C.E.O.s feel that their allowances were cut and so now they believe that it is time for them to be given it back. The government workers got back their ten percent and so they feel that they were not cut their salary, but their allowances were cut so we giving it back to them. Remember….anyway, we leave it as that.”
