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Politics and generous salaries
The $3.8 million salary package offered to Executive Director of the NSWMA, Joan Gordon Webley is in excess of the salary paid former executive director Errol Green and former executive chairman Alston Stewart. Mrs. Joan Gordon Webley was appointed to the post without the post being advertised while maintaining her position as caretaker for the constituency of South Eastern St Andrew .
In order for emolument packages to exceed the limits set by the establishment, MOF approval must first be sought. We have no doubt that the bureaucracy will fall in line with the priorities of the new administration and that therefore the requisite approvals will be forthcoming.
We are unaware of the package of emoluments that has been given to Col Trevor MacMillan who has been appointed advisor to the MOF. In the case of the post occupied by Trevor MacMillan, his predecessor Mike Surridge was paid an enormous package which, at the time, was the subject of political controversy.
We are concerned that the JLP is laying a sticky wicket for itself which will not help its promised objective to improve governance. There is a lack of openness and transparency on its approach in these matters. There has been a cynical disregard of the promises it made during the run up to the elections. The JLP was bitterly critically of the PNP for what it called genetically connected appointments. It suggested that the PNP in government merely looked after its own. Not every one agreed the case was proven against the PNP. Proven or not we believe that it is something that was properly deprecated and repudiated. Therefore, it is incumbent on the government to chart a new course from that which the previous administration used.
One would not have thought that the promise of jobs, jobs, jobs, meant jobs for the boys and girls. It is early days yet for the promise of jobs to be fulfilled, but it appears to have given validity to the adage, ‘parson christens his children first.’
The government should be wary that the politics of rewarding friends with generous salary packages could undermine the public sector wage negotiation on which the administration is about to embark. Already promises of 100 per cent wage settlements have fueled expectations. The salary package offered to Mrs. Joan Gordon Webley will be a case of fathers eat the sour grapes and the children’s teeth are on edge.
The $3.8 million salary package offered to Executive Director of the NSWMA, Joan Gordon Webley is in excess of the salary paid former executive director Errol Green and former executive chairman Alston Stewart. Mrs. Joan Gordon Webley was appointed to the post without the post being advertised while maintaining her position as caretaker for the constituency of South Eastern St Andrew .
In order for emolument packages to exceed the limits set by the establishment, MOF approval must first be sought. We have no doubt that the bureaucracy will fall in line with the priorities of the new administration and that therefore the requisite approvals will be forthcoming.
We are unaware of the package of emoluments that has been given to Col Trevor MacMillan who has been appointed advisor to the MOF. In the case of the post occupied by Trevor MacMillan, his predecessor Mike Surridge was paid an enormous package which, at the time, was the subject of political controversy.
We are concerned that the JLP is laying a sticky wicket for itself which will not help its promised objective to improve governance. There is a lack of openness and transparency on its approach in these matters. There has been a cynical disregard of the promises it made during the run up to the elections. The JLP was bitterly critically of the PNP for what it called genetically connected appointments. It suggested that the PNP in government merely looked after its own. Not every one agreed the case was proven against the PNP. Proven or not we believe that it is something that was properly deprecated and repudiated. Therefore, it is incumbent on the government to chart a new course from that which the previous administration used.
One would not have thought that the promise of jobs, jobs, jobs, meant jobs for the boys and girls. It is early days yet for the promise of jobs to be fulfilled, but it appears to have given validity to the adage, ‘parson christens his children first.’
The government should be wary that the politics of rewarding friends with generous salary packages could undermine the public sector wage negotiation on which the administration is about to embark. Already promises of 100 per cent wage settlements have fueled expectations. The salary package offered to Mrs. Joan Gordon Webley will be a case of fathers eat the sour grapes and the children’s teeth are on edge.
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