Morris Cargill

ON WEDNESDAY, October 13th Citizens for Civil Society held a meeting at the Girl Guides Headquarters on Waterloo Road. It was well attended, by about three or four hundred people.
I went to the meeting in my wheelchair, but as I am not able to sustain sitting up for long periods without considerable pain, I left the meeting after Daryl Vaz had finished making his opening address and after I had briefly thanked the audience for its attendance. I was therefore not at the meeting when it was thrown open to suggestions and observations from the audience.

Before Daryl Vaz made his opening remarks, a prayer or a sermon (I don't know which) was offered by the Rev. James Murray, who I gather, had been invited to bless the proceedings. Alas, the Rev. James Murray's prayers took a very long time indeed, and I got the impression (using Disraeli's words) that he had become inebriated by the exuberance of his own verbosity. In any case, the length of his whole performance caused my back to ache. I must admit, that even in my active youth, I've always become uncomfortable with Rev. gentlemen who pray for too long.

The next morning after the meeting, Rev. James Murray appeared as a guest on Barbara Gloudon's excellent talk programme. He expressed considerable misgivings about a number of the suggestions made from the floor at this meeting. I am told that he even said that some of the suggestions from the floor were treasonous. He was of course, totally within his rights to express those misgivings, but if a meeting is convened to allow people to express their dissatisfaction and to protest about the lack of performance of the present Government, one must expect some rather radical and even extreme views. On the other hand I am told, that the meeting proceeded peacefully, and nobody proposed blocking roads or setting fire to tyres.

I suppose it was understandable that someone should have taught that the first big meeting of the Citizens for Civil Society should have been opened with prayer. But I don't think that parsons and protests make a comfortable mixture, unless the parsons are Baptists or Moravians. After all, if people are going to raise a bit of hell at a meeting, it's somewhat inappropriate to have the harbingers of Heaven in attendance. They are often too long-winded anyway.

The new millionaires

I was astonished by the salaries and allowances paid to executives of certain quangos and government departments.

The salaries paid to such people and the earnings of the top in commercial enterprises must be considered in different ways. The top people in purely commercial enterprises are entitled to be rewarded by shareholders to any extent to which their ability and enterprise make money for the companies they manage. Big business in developed countries pays very large salaries to successful executives, and very often pays those salaries, in ways such as by share options which lessen the incidence of income tax. All this is par for the cause and is part of the allowable activities of successful and profitable corporations.

However, when it comes to quangos and government organisations, other considerations and standards must be applied. Nobody cares or should care what the top people in, for instance, Grace Kennedy or Lascelles Demercardo are paid, for these salaries are generated by and from the earnings of their respective companies. But when it comes to organisations, the cost of which must be borne by taxpayers, different rules should apply. It is, in my view, quite disgraceful that in a poor country like Jamaica the top people of quangos and government departments should be made into millionaires from the taxes of poor people many of whom have difficulty knowing where their next meal is coming from.

There is another matter. If one examines the salaries which have been published, one finds, for example, that Mr. Gavin Chen, in addition to a basic salary of just under $5.3 million also gets an entertainment allowance of $180,000, other special allowances totalling $300,000 and a $16.52 million mortgage at five per cent.

The Senior Deputy Governor at the BOJ is paid what appears to be a relatively modest salary of just under $3 million a year. But in addition, he gets over $1 1/2 million in housing, over $650,000 for overseas travel, nearly $400,000 for entertainment, over $100,000 for domestic allowances, $700,000 for motor vehicle upkeep and, even more astonishing over $100,000 in clothing allowances. He also seems to have a $2 million loan from the bank. Mr. Latibeaudiere seems to be somewhat of an exception. His basic salary is over $6 million, but he gets $800,000 house allowance and about $140,000 in overseas travel. He may indeed be worth his salary, though he will pardon me if I doubt it.

But as one goes through the list of these salaries, one is astonished by the huge amounts added for the weirdest allowances of various kinds. For example, the managing director of the NHT gets a basic pay of just under $4 million, but is the proud professor of a mortgage of nearly $5 million at four per cent.

And so it goes on with executive after executive receiving vast allowances in addition to high basic pay. I am well aware that it is common practice to give executives and other employees expenses and other allowances so as to minimise their income tax. This practice, reason ably exercised, is fair enough; but the vast and weird allowances given to top people that I'm writing about amounts to a conspiracy to avoid (I'm careful not to use "evade") income tax, which is encouraged and abetted by the government itself.

The whole business is disgraceful and scandalous, it is not only that, but it is the stuff of which, in a poor country revolutions, are made.

The inflated salaries and allowances of these people have got urgently to be cut down to size. The government cannot escape blame, for it is quite clear that it has been taking our country and its taxpayers for a first class ride. You will I'm sure have noticed, that in this column I have mostly avoided calling names. But if this situation continues, I shall be forced to do so in detail, so that the country will know the people who are responsible for creating the huge salary gap between the poor people and the rich who are exploiting them.

A little story

A customer goes into a restaurant to have dinner. To his amazement, he finds that the cost of a beer is 5 cents. He also discovers that the cost of a steak dinner is 50 cents.

So he calls the headwaiter and tells him that he is amazed at these low prices, and that he would like to see the owner of the restaurant.

The headwaiter says: "I am sorry Sir, but the owner is upstairs with my wife."

"What is he doing upstairs?" the customer asks.

The headwaiter replies: "The same thing to my wife as I am doing to his business."