From left, Patterson, Clarke and Davies
Robert Hart, Parliamentary Reporter
PRIME MINISTER P.J. Patterson is to receive a report soon from the bi-partisan task force set up to examine the recommendations of the Oliver Clarke-led Parliamentary Salaries Review Committee.
According to Dr. Omar Davies, Minister of Finance and Planning, the task force has finally completed its deliberations on the 40 recommendations of the extensive 60-page Clarke Report, and will soon inform the Prime Minister on which of the recommendations the Parliament should take on.
"I'm sending a report to the Prime Minister shortly and I suspect he will table the Clarke Report in Parliament with (our) recommendations," Dr. Davies told The Sunday Gleaner.
AFTER DEADLINE
The Finance Minister, who chaired the task force set up by the Prime Minister, first met with its other members on December 9.
The committee also comprises the leaders of Government and Opposition Business in both Houses of Parliament, the Speaker of the House, the President of the Senate and one backbencher from each side of the political divide.
The report will come more than seven months after the initial deadline set for a response. On November 11 last year, Mr. Patterson tabled the Clarke Report and indicated that the committee of parliamentarians would be formed.
The committee, the Prime Minister told the members of the House of Representatives at that time, would be expected to report to Parliament with a view to facilitating a debate before the end of the 2003 calendar year. If unable to do so, he had added, a reason would have to be presented.
Last week, Dr. Davies maintained that it would not have been feasible properly to examine the voluminous document within the set one-month time frame. He also said it would be left to the Prime Minister to disclose the content of his upcoming report.
Among the recommendations presented in the Clarke-report were that there should be no increase in the current base pay for Members of Parliament; that Senators, who now receive a minimal allowance, be paid a taxable honorarium based on attendance (which could total $500,000 per annum); that the Leader of the Opposition be compensated at the same level as a Cabinet Minister; and that the Government should fund a constituency office for each MP.
The Parliamentary Salaries Review Committee, which was established by the Prime Minister in February 2003, also recommended the construction of a new Parliament building, given the inadequacy of the current Gordon House structure.
The Prime Minister had mandated the Clarke-committee to conduct a review of the salaries paid to parliamentarians and make recommendations.
The move came on the heels of reports that MPs had received a huge pay increase, pushing their salaries from just over $1 million to $2 million per annum.
However, the storm of criticism that followed the announcement led the Prime Minister to put an immediate freeze on further increases to MPs, pending the findings of the salaries review committee.
NO EXEMPTION
In his initial response to the committee's recommendations, the Prime Minister said: "Convincing reasons have been put forward by the group in respect of each and every recommendation. We in Parliament need to settle on a process and a time frame which will allow for implementation in both the immediate and medium term.
"We will have to take steps, if we accept that recommendation, to constitute a Permanent Salaries Review Board which will make recommendations on periodic increases and no longer on the basis of any linkage with the salaries of Permanent Secretaries."
But earlier this year, during the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (Mo) between Government and public sector workers, the Prime Minister pledged that parliamentarians would not be exempt from the agreement to restrain salaries over a two-year period.
The terms of the MoU also indicate that the implementation of a number of the other recommendations in the Clarke Report would not be viable until at least April 2006.
