Higher Salary and Better Benefits Package for Governor General

At Friday’s House Meeting, the resolution was passed to amend the schedule of the Governor General’s conditions of service act to increase the G.G.’s salary from a little over fifty thousand dollars to seventy-five thousand annually. It also makes provisions for duty allowances to be increased from two thousand dollars to twelve thousand dollars per year. PM Briceño announced health insurance will be added as well as a pension package, retroactive to include Sir Colville Young.

John Briceño

Prime Minister John Briceño

“I made the point that our Governor General is probably the second-lowest paid GG and we have to treat our Governor Generals with more respect and more dignity. I said then and this bill is doing what we mentioned at the last House Meeting that we want to increase the salary of the Governor General and by increasing this we also want to provide health insurance. Imagine, the past Governor General Sir Colville Young has no health insurance and his wife is now very ill in bed. And now today with the support of the Government we are providing assistance to the GG in taking care of his wife. It is just the decent thing to do. If he would have had health insurance that wouldn’t have been necessary. So, with these amendments, we will be including the health insurance coverage and also the increase in salary and also an improvement in the pension of the Governor General. When it comes to the pension we are doing it retroactively. We are not going to behave like the previous UDP like what they did with Dame Minita Gordon and just throw her out on the street. We are doing it retroactively so that then the previous GG Sir Colville Young who served us well and with distinction that he will also be covered by the pension. So his pension is going to be increased when we pass this bill. And I will be asking all members of the House, also the members of the Opposition to support us in the amendment of this bill.”