Paying parliamentarians

In the midst of fiercely debating the optics of symbolic pay cuts and the presentation of yet another austerity Budget, The Sunday Gleaner last week chose to run either an ill-timed or well-timed story, 'Poorly paid politicians - J'can political leaders among worst paid in region'.

As usual, the work on which the story was based was done elsewhere, not here. It was based on the Report on the Remuneration and Allowances of the Speaker and other Members of the House of Assembly in the Turks & Caicos Islands (TCI), a British dependency. The matter was not handled by the House of Assembly itself, leaving it open to criticisms of feathering its own nest. Nor was an appointed committee asked to undertake the review of salaries, like Jamaica's Clarke Committee for the Review of Parliamentary Salaries in 2003 and several others before it.

The Integrity Commission of the TCI is constitutionally mandated to recommend appropriate levels of remuneration for members of the Government. Section 124 of the Constitution of the TCI says:

(1) There shall be paid to the speaker and the other members of the House of Assembly such remuneration and allowances as may be prescribed by ordinance.

(2) The House of Assembly shall not proceed on any bill for an ordinance referred to in subsection (1) unless a report by the Integrity Commission recommending the appropriate levels of such remuneration and allowances has been laid before the House and has been published; and no ordinance shall provide for levels of remuneration or allowances that exceed the levels recommended in such report.

The Turks & Caicos Islands came to the problem of parliamentary remuneration from the opposite end to the Jamaican concern. The British government having dissolved the former government of the dependency, the interim administration driven by 'fiscal responsibility' wanted to review whether members of the last executive had been overcompensated.

SALARY REVIEW FRAMEWORK

In my contribution to The Sunday Gleaner story, I told the reporter Tyrone Reid that in my view, the TCI report was a thoroughly executed and comprehensive report by the Integrity Commission of the TCI carried out under the mandate of their Constitution. A clear rationale for the review of salaries was set out, and a set of underlying principles for the exercise was carefully laid out, since "fixing remuneration for parliamentarians cannot be done in a vacuum". We should proceed along similar lines in Jamaica.

The TCI report said "having regard to the fiscal and economic realities of the times, the Commission considered it essential to bear in mind the ability of the TCI Government to pay reasonable and respectable remuneration and allowances to the members of the House of Assembly. After all, public officials and workers can only reasonably expect to receive such remuneration as the TCI can bear."

Their Integrity Commission laid down seven 'underlying principles' which guided their work:

(i) Members of the House of Assembly must be remunerated at a level that is proportionate to the responsibilities associated with membership of the House or ministerial responsibility.

(ii) Levels of remuneration must adequately reward public service and render such service satisfying to the member.

(iii) Levels of remuneration must be so reasonable and proportionate that they serve as a disincentive to members to become corrupt.

(iv) There must be differentiation between remuneration paid to ministers who will serve as full-time officials and other members of the House of Assembly who will be free to pursue their private occupations while still serving as members of the House.

(v) Levels of remuneration must reflect the realities of public service in a small Commonwealth jurisdiction.

(vi) Levels of remuneration must bear relativity to the remuneration accorded to members of legislatures in the Commonwealth Caribbean.

(vii) Levels of remuneration must take account of the cost of living.

The TCI report surveyed seven other territories: Anguilla, Barbados, Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, Jamaica and Montserrat. While the TCI interest in fellow dependencies is understandable, for our purposes, including a couple more larger independent territories would have been very useful.

JAMAICA PAYING PEANUTS

The comparative analysis presented in the report shows Jamaica, the largest territory surveyed but with the smallest GDP per capita, coming out at or close to the bottom of the remuneration for members of the legislature and for ministers in the executive.

The Sunday Gleaner story extracted data from tables in the TCI report showing that Jamaica's prime minister is the lowest paid in the region when salaries and allowances are combined. The highest-paid head of government was the TCI's premier, who was taking home US$288,000 in salary and allowances, or more than three times the salary of Jamaica's prime minister!

The pay package of Jamaica's leader of the Opposition was third on a list of six countries for which figures were included.

Cabinet ministers in Jamaica were ranked seventh of the eight territories compared, coming out only above the Cabinet ministers in Montserrat.

Elected members of the House of Representatives ranked fifth of the eight countries reviewed.

While the TCI report has recommended substantial cuts in remuneration for the premier, deputy premier and ministers and a substantial increase for the speaker and members of the House of Assembly, I believe that in the same context and applying the same set of principles, the corresponding salaries in Jamaica, justifiably, should be increased. And a better alignment between the value of executive office (ministers) and the value of the legislative function (parliamentarians) should also be done through narrowing the gap between ministerial compensation and parliamentary compensation.

Ministers here pull about US$85,000, according to the TCI Report, while backbenchers can expect to be paid around US$46,000, a near 46 per cent differential.

COMPENSATION BLUES

As Professor of Government Trevor Munroe put it in his contribution to The Sunday Gleaner story: "The responsibility attached to the job of a parliamentarian is set out in the Constitution: to make laws for the peace, order and good government of Jamaica and, therefore, that responsibility should attract to the post sufficient remuneration commensurate with the responsibility.

"As of now," he said, "the compensation, salaries and allowances for members of parliament, ministers and the prime minister are relatively low in comparison to other Caribbean territories."

There is no provision that I am aware of in the Jamaican Constitution for the review of remuneration to parliamentarians. But this could be remedied at the level of statute law in the first instance by assigning the task to our Integrity Commission. Despite some recent ripples, Parliament has developed and has maintained the fine tradition of accepting, by consensus, the recommendations of the Electoral Advisory Commission on which sit designated members of the two major political parties which form Government and Opposition. The same tradition could be developed of accepting the remuneration recommendation of the Integrity Commission which, itself, would be guided by "underlying principles".

The people of Jamaica, like the people of the Turks & Caicos Islands, have to ask and answer that fundamental question set out in the TCI report: What price are we prepared to pay for good governance?

Martin Henry is a communication specialist. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and medhen@gmail.com.