Deputy Governor supports pay raises

Deputy Governor Donovan Ebanks said
Monday that pay rises given to eight staff members of a government portfolio
had his full support when they were presented to him earlier this year.

“This decision was taken some
months before the announcement on 6 May regarding the cut in pay and allowances
referred to in the (Caymanian Compass newspaper) article,” Mr. Ebanks told
members of the Legislative Assembly.

On Friday, the Caymanian Compass
reported that a third of the staff in the Portfolio of the Civil Service
received pay raises between March and July as the Cayman Islands Government
struggled with an operating deficit that was projected near $45 million at the
time.

The increases took effect between 1
March and 1 July prior to an across-the-board 3.2 per cent salary reduction
instituted by government in an attempt to cut costs heading into the current
fiscal year, which began on 1 July. 

The eight employees all received
the 3.2 per cent pay reduction, but in some cases their raises more than
doubled the amount of the 3.2 per cent pay cut and resulted in a significant
increase.

Portfolio of the Civil Service
officials, who provided the pay raise information under the Freedom of
Information Law, said the increases were warranted in all cases because of
additional responsibilities the staffers had taken on in their jobs or because
of additional qualifications they had received.

Mr. Ebanks claimed the pay rises
were actually awarded in February and took effect on 1 March – three days
before Financial Secretary Kenneth Jefferson announced a major salary reduction
proposal for civil servants.

Premier McKeeva Bush had suggested
similar pay cuts to the ones proposed by Mr. Jefferson in a public announcement
that occurred on 1 March.

There was no mention of the raises
being awarded in February in documents provided to the Caymanian Compass under
the Freedom of Information Law.

That salary reduction effort
announced by Mr. Jefferson was later revised to the lesser 3.2 per cent
across-the-board cut in pay for civil servants.

Mr. Ebanks said the total
additional cost of the pay rises to the public for the eight portfolio employees
was $22,344 per year. He said this was much less than it would have cost the
portfolio to fill four vacant positions – which he said was $326,112 per year.

However, there is no guarantee
those positions would have been filled in any case. There are numerous vacant
positions existing currently within the civil service that have not been filled
because of a “soft” hiring freeze implemented by government in late 2008.

Mr. Ebanks also said the salary
increases “allowed the discontinuation of allowances” totalling $46,800 that
were being paid prior to the grant of the pay raises.

Most government employee allowances
were either eliminated or sharply reduced in the current 2010/11 budget.

“The numbers speak for themselves,”
Mr. Ebanks said. “The proposals had my support when they were presented to me
back in February, and the actions and results have my support today.”

Less than two months before
Monday’s statement by Mr. Ebanks, an internal memo dated 20 September was
released by the deputy governor’s office warning civil service officials not to
give employees salary increments.

According to an administrative
circular sent on behalf of Mr. Ebanks, all chief officers, department heads,
unit managers and appointing officers were told that “employees should not be
receiving salary increment awards at this time”.

Reports have been made to the
Cayman Islands Civil Service Association about certain government workers
getting pay raises since the spring of 2010. However, until the open records
request made last month by the Caymanian Compass, there had been no
confirmation of those occurring.

Earlier this year, the government
cut its employee salaries by 3.2 per cent across-the-board, and vowed to cut
its overall spending on personnel by some $19 million from the previous 2009/10
budget year.

A memo produced the same day as the
warning about pay hikes – 20 September, 2010 – indicated that certain
individual salary increases would be allowed, but only under strict guidelines.

“It is acknowledged that there may
be circumstances where you feel that you must give the award to retain a valued
employee,” read the September memo, signed by Portfolio of Internal and
External Affairs Chief Officer Franz Manderson. “There may also be other
exceptional circumstances where you feel that a payment is warranted.”