A defiant Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo defended the salary increases for government ministers and parliamentarians on Wednesday, while brushing aside continued criticism of the move.

The Prime Minister took over the post-cabinet press briefing on Wednesday afternoon and justified the increases that have been criticized by trade unions, political commentators, the opposition and even supporters of the coalition.

He said the issue has run its course and he blames himself for a poor public relations job by the government on the issue.

“It was not explained fully and it was not properly packaged and I believe that the very fact that you are asking the question that there is 50% increase, shows the extent to which this matter has been allowed to spiral out of control in a sense”, Nagamootoo said.

The Prime Minister said there is no “love for money” motive behind the increases, but rather the government moved to correct abnormalities that existed in the salary structure for government ministers.

Mr. Nagamootoo reminded that not all government Ministers were receiving  a 50% increase. He said as Prime Minister, he is getting a 10% increase while the junior ministers have been given a 19% increase. The senior ministers are the ones who will be seeing their salaries bumped up by close to 50%. The government he said, wanted to add structure to the salary scale rather than allowing an uneven structure that existed before.

He said the government was faced with a system that saw Permanent Secretaries being paid more than the Junior Ministers they were under. He said the Junior Ministers will still be paid less but the Senior Ministers saw an elevation in their salaries.

According to the Prime Minister, he does not see any other increases coming for Ministers for a very long time.

He said “this is not coming because Ministers feel that they were entitled to super salaries. It was an adjustment for a handful of persons that the state could have afforded at this point in time”.

The Prime Minister said when it comes to the rest of the public service, the government will look at increases for them also and that could even come before the end of this year as the administration awaits a report from the Public Service Commission of Inquiry.

“I know down the line, public servants will be remunerated. We are waiting on the report that will come out of the Commission of Inquiry and we will be guided by it”.

When he served as a Minister in the PPP administration just after the 1992 elections, Mr. Nagamootoo said he had turned down salary increases that were proposed at the time by that government. When asked what has changed now that would make him accept the 10% increase for him as Prime Minister, he said “I remain the same person that I have always been”.

“It’s not that we changed, it’s that we wanted to put in a system that would allow us to govern better. It’s not the quantity of the money, it is the principle of correcting the anomalies that existed”, he said.

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