Ministry of Public Service Makes Plans to Improve Revenue Collection

The government says its growing wage bill is putting pressure on the national budget, making it difficult to meet the salary demands of all public workers. But the Belize National Teachers’ Union isn’t backing down, arguing that it’s the government’s duty to manage spending wisely and ensure fair wages for all Belizeans. This morning, we asked the Minister of Public Service Henry Charles Usher how the government plans to tackle the issue and whether it will provide more transparency about who’s on the public payroll, a key demand from the unions.

 

Henry Charles Usher, Minister of Public Service

“That is always a priority. As a matter of fact, in previous discussions with the joint union team we established some committees, the Revenue Enhancement Committee, the Cost Saving committee, and the Pension Reform committee. Those committee are committees that are standing, meaning that they are operating earlier around and they are advising and making recommendations to the government as to how we can improve revenue collection, improve new areas of revenue improve on the cost saving initiatives that the government has put in place. One of those is to look at the wage bill, to see areas where we can improve in terms of. Perhaps we have to do audits of the different ministries, departments to see if there are workers to fill all of those posts, et cetera. That’s what’s called a desk audit. So all of that is ongoing. And while that is happening, we’re also looking at the comprehensive review of the salary structure in the public service. That is a project also that we’re working in collaboration with the IDB to bring in consultants to work with the Minister of Public Service. The Minister of Finance, of course, the Minister of Education. And the other departments necessary to be able to implement that comprehensive salary review. At the end, we hope to be able to have a public service that not only is affordable. That is one that is, the wage bill is something that we can certainly budget for, but also we want to make sure we have the best and the brightest in these departments. And that means we have to properly compensate them and we have to look at what the private sector is paying to certain people to see, to make sure that we at least remain competitive in the public service.”