Opposition Spokesperson on Finance and Planning Julian Robinson is concerned about what said were conflicting statements being made by the Dr Nigel Clarke, minister of finance and the public service, and his ministry regarding the rollout of the new Public Sector Wage Compensation.

According to Robinson, public servants remain unclear whether the Government will be reclaiming monies already paid out, leaving them worse off than they were before, especially ahead of the holiday season.

On November 22, Robinson said Clarke assured the Parliament that allowances paid from April to November 2022 would not be recovered by the Government.

“There will be no refunds required. Persons who have been in receipt of allowances from April 1…There will be no refund required; we will just go forward,” Robinson quoted the minister as saying then.

The Opposition finance spokesman noted that the minister’s promise to public servants was again restated by the Ministry of Finance in a release on November 24, which read: “The Government has never planned to recover and will not be recovering allowances that have already been paid to public sector workers.” and further, “…given the government’s guarantee of a minimum increase in net compensation, there won’t be any requirements for employees to make any repayments of allowances already received.”

Said Robinson: “We were therefore surprised by Circular 24, issued on December 10, 2022, by the Ministry of Finance, which indicated that discontinued allowances paid from April to November 2022 would be recovered.”

He added: “The series of contradictory statements are causing great anxiety across the public service and further widens the trust deficit.

“The clawing back of these allowances will represent a significant loss of anticipated income for many workers, especially travelling officers. In some cases, the anticipated retroactive payment may be completely eroded, leaving some civil servants in a deficit.”

He said the Opposition was calling for full transparency and disclosure of all the terms and conditions of the new compensation review package and that the Opposition would work to ensure that the country’s workers, “who are the backbone of our society, are given their due and not economically disadvantaged by this uncaring Government”.