Ministers paid an average of over $305k per year
(CNS): Members of the Cabinet earned CI$3.3 million, about $305,000 each on average in 2022, the Office of the Auditor General (OAG) has revealed in a new public interest report. Government ministers were not the only senior public sector employees to take home salaries and benefits that the average resident can only dream of; other members of parliament also earned an average of $285,000 per year, while members of the judiciary collected a total of $3.3 million, which is an average pay plus perks of around $302,000 each. Meanwhile, chief officers earned $4.3 million, about $204,000 each on average.
Across the civil service, staff in key management positions (Grade E and above) earned a total of $35.4 million, about $136,000 per year on average, the report revealed.
Auditor General Sue Winspear explained that while the salaries are public information, she conducted this report to give the public better access to the information since the government is not reporting the salaries in the consolidated accounts.
“I have prepared this report to provide independent information and improve the transparency of the remuneration of key management personnel in the public service,” said Winspear. “The remuneration rates given in this report are already in the public domain, as is much of the information. However, key management personnel information is not disclosed, as it should be, in the consolidated financial statements of the entire public sector. This report brings together that information for the first time.”
Winspear explained in the report that her office has issued an adverse audit opinion on the consolidated financial statements for the Entire Public Sector since 2013, and one of the factors contributing to this is in regard to omissions in financial statement disclosures. “One of those omissions is that the Government has not established a system for reporting key management personnel transactions,” she said. “As a result… the public does not routinely know what is spent on, for example, MPs’ salaries and benefits.”
The report found that the civil service employed 4,566 people at the end 2022 and paid them all about
$360.4 million in remuneration, or $79,000 on average. The report also highlighted that in 2022,
there were 293 key management personnel across the government and the civil service, who earned
$45 million in total, or about $154,000 each on average.
However, MPs are in general the best paid of all public officials, given that on top of their salaries and general benefits, they are also paid additional allowances for constituency offices of some CI$5,000 per month, even though several of them use their homes as their offices, while Minister Jay Ebanks uses the North Side Civic Centre.
The two MPs for the Sister Islands, Premier Julianna O’Connor-Connolly and Moses Kirkconnell, receive additional travel and accommodation allowances. Their office staff are also paid separately and not out of their constituency allowance.
Winspear made no recommendations or judgements about the report and the amounts spent on politicians, stressing that the goal was transparency and giving the public a chance to see for themselves all in one place how much public cash goes on pay for those in senior public office.
See the report in full below:
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Category: Government Finance, Local News
Too many Caymanians voters are fools. yes fools. And can’t cure a fool. it’s no injections or surgery to cure fools. Even after they dead, they still a dead fool.
Highest paid politicians and senior civil servants in the Caribbean region lowest productivity for one of the smallest population!
1:55 you obviously know NOTHING about Jamaica when you mention productivity and I suspect the rest of the Caribbean islands are no better. When I came here to do business a few years ago after spending time in two other islands plus Jamaica ( a nightmare) I was amazed at how efficient the civil service is here by comparison with the laziness corruption and downright incompetence I had to deal with in these other places. Low bar you might say but that’s another story for another time about the West Indies as a whole.
and you dunce voters wonder why they dont car about your gas, electric, grocery or any other bill for that matter. HAHAHAHA! Wayne didn’t care and neither does Julie. If they did the gas prices, CUC and Bank Mortgage rates would not be this out of hand.
G>O>A>T
Christ on a bike CI$305k is nearly double what a UK MoP would earn and I doubt there is twice as much work involved running this little government. Might be tome for intervention?
Hello people we can’t stand for this highway piracy. We ain’t getting value for money from these people . They with maybe one/two exceptions needs to be fired immediately, before sending them home they need to be beaten with Osbourne’s Cow Cod.
Question for you all: At one time, all these salaries had to be in bill which (by law) must be out for public consultation for 21 days. That is when you (the public purse) have a chance to say “No, MP! I don’t agree with this.” Then that bill got debated in the LA. Still no word from you all. Now you all claim you did not know that any of this was happening? You all do not pay attention to your own laws? I can’t blame your politicians. It is you, the voters, who are supposed to be the watchdogs of your own money. Wow! No wonder you are being ripped off.
Are you new to the island? Our government isn’t very transparent & we don’t get much say in anything.
28/11/2023 at 6:06pm: Well, I usually listen to the sittings on the radio when I am driving East after 8 at night, so I hear them discussing these things…
Unnah want that to change? Lobby your MP to bring a Bill to amend the law. But wait! The majority of them would have to vote and pass that amendment, eh? Nah! Forget it, that ain’t neva goin’ happen’
Now their supporters know then can ask for $100 instead of $25 this Christmas!
Caymanians if you have bee voting for politicians who promise to give you goodies at someone else’s expense,then you have no right to complain when they take your money and give it to someone else including themselves.I hope this answers you question Elvis.But we all know who the takers are now here in these islands.
Hi CNS, can you contact every MP for a comment on this and put it together in one article so we the voting public can read? Next election will be here very soon let’s see what they have to say for themselves.