The Tribune

By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune News Editor

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

AN $18m increase in compensation for public sector workers helped spark a year-over-year increase in government spending, Prime Minister Philip “Brave” Davis indicated during his mid-term budget communication yesterday.

He also revealed that while COVID-19 related spending had decreased to $1m, a contraction of 78.2 per cent, social assistance spending rose by 44.3 per cent, “reflecting the government’s broader objective of providing enhanced assistance to households.”

Mr Davis said for the first six months of the fiscal year, preliminary aggregate expenditure was $1.56b, a $24.7m increase over the previous year. He said initial valuations of recurrent spending for the period showed it increased $8.5m year-over-year.

He said employee compensation increased by $18.2m to $417.6m.

“Increased spending in this component is explained by higher employment costs because of planned promotions and other staff and salary adjustments during the period,” he said.

Labour and Public Services Minister Pia Glover-Rolle said last year that a widespread promotional exercise for public servants would begin in October.

“In total, this exercise represents over six million additional dollars in the pockets of public servants as we advance the first public service-wide promotion exercise in over nine years,” she said.

In October 2021, she said the government sought to promote more than 600 public servants.