Former finance minister Amadou Sanneh has opined that the executive has more to gain from the recent 30 per cent salaries increase, describing it as ‘a robbery budget’.
“This is not really a salary increase. It’s more an increase for the ministers; the executive,” ex-finance minister Sanneh explained to JollofNews when contacted on Sunday for comments on the recent 30 per cent upward review of salaries of civil servants.
“If you factor their(executive) increase, it takes the Lion’s Share of the rest of what the civil service gets,” Mr. Sanneh pointed out.
He added:” If you go to the President’s office, his cleaners that are earning D1500…if you calculate 30 per-cent of that, it’s just D450. With the increase, it has not even reached D2000. You cannot say you have reduced his cost of living or improved his standard of living. It’s not realistic.
“Their income tax is not also structured. The more you earn, the more tax you pay. That will also impact the increase.”
He opined that for the benefit of salary increase to trickle down to the majority of civil servants, salaries must be restructured.
“The best thing for the country as a whole…not for the individual but for the country… should have been to restructure the salary which had been on the cards for long time. And, I think PMO has hired a consultant to do the salary structure review,” he stated.
“So, one would have expected the increase to match with that structure so that those on the very low can benefit. They can have realistic increase on their salaries. But if you give the Lion’s Share to the top earners…is like supporting the rich. That’s what this budget entails. It’s a robbery budget,” the erstwhile finance minister said.
