Thousands of public servants’ families face continued loss of purchasing power as a perfect storm of mounting cost of living and no increase in wages continue to squeeze and strain the budgetary skills of Guyana’s public servants.
Although Minister within the Office of the President with responsibility for Finance Dr. Ashni Singh spoke for six hours delivering the 2022 Budget estimates he only found time to mention the term “public servants” once in his entire address. This singular mention was to point out that public servants received a 7% taxable salary increase in 2021, an amount that was universally considered to be inadequate to counter high inflation rates.
With even the term “public servants” being so deliberately avoided it has come as no shock that in a budget that amounts to $552.9 billion there is still no salary increase for the tens of thousands of public servants who have long been calling on the installed PPP regime to heed call to provide public servants with a living wage.
Frustration is further increased by the fact that the PPP regime will be emptying the Natural Resource Fund (NRF) to finance the 2022 Budget. Much was expected of the first oil budget but so far nothing is likely to be delivered. With inflation expected to remain high in 2022, public servants continue to call on the installed PPP regime to take much needed steps to, at a minimum, preserve the already small purchasing power of their salaries.
More, In The Ring.
