The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

The Democratic National Alliance’s (DNA) leader yesterday pledged to reform public pensions, and lashed out at the disparity between MPs’ retirement income and that of long-standing civil servants such as police officers.

Addressing a press conference to outline the party’s public service reform ‘white paper’, Branville McCartney said: “It is unfortunate that we have politicians that come into politics for eight years and end up getting a pension of hundreds of thousands of dollars on the backs of Bahamians, when you have police officers working for many years and can’t get the same benefits. That must stop.”

    Acknowledging the Government’s unfunded $2.2 billion public sector pension liabilities, which have been flagged by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Youri Kemp, the DNA’s finance spokesman, said that pension reform was a key part of the party’s economic agenda.

“We’re going to have to probably have to increase [salary] deductions,” he admitted. “Secondly, we’re probably going to  have to get some premium package done to give persons more flexibility.”

The IMF has said it is “inevitable” that the Government will have to reform both public sector (civil service) pensions and the National Insurance Board (NIB) to defuse a potential social time bomb.

    “We have to put legislation in place to ensure that in the private sector, persons have pension plans in place for their employees. That is essential and is for the welfare of all. We’re also going to have to look at these pensions that have been given out for years and the unfairness of it,” said Mr McCartney.