THE GOVERNMENT has slashed its controversial salary bill for consultants by 18 per cent, but Audley Shaw, Opposition Spokesman on Finance, still thinks further cuts are necessary.
According to the 2003/2004 Cabinet Report tabled in the House of Representatives on Tuesday, salaries paid to Government consultants have been reduced from $326 million to $278 million. The report pointed to a Ministry Paper indicating that there was a 35 per cent reduction in the number of consultants/advisers in the civil service and a 32 per cent reduction in those employed by parastatals.
"Savings of $48.63 million were made during the year," the report said.
But Mr. Shaw argued yesterday that the consultancy bill was still too high. "It should be contained at $200 million," he told The Gleaner.
The report also outlined the definitions of the categories of consultants/advisers.
Prime Minister P.J. Patterson had requested those definitions in July 2003 when he placed a freeze on the hiring of what were then referred to as "consultants, advisers and special advisers."
But the three categories now listed are consultant, special adviser and political adviser.
The responsibilities of the previously unlabeled political adviser are to "assist the ministers on issues where the work of Government and the work of the governing party intersect and it would be inappropriate for civil servants to provide advice."
