Minister with responsibility for Finance and the Public Service, Dr. Ashni Singh today said the Government will not prevent public servants, who are on pensionable employment, from opting for contract gratuity employment, noting that it is a choice for individuals to make once they meet the criteria.

Currently, there are more than 8,000 public servants on contract receiving gratuity.

A “contract gratuity worker” is an employee hired on a contract basis who is eligible to receive a gratuity payment upon completion of their contract, usually calculated as a percentage of their basic salary.

During a Parliamentary sitting today, the Finance Minister was asked whether he found it to be feasible to have persons on contract employment as oppose to the fixed establishment.

“This People’s Progressive Party Government has infinite faith in the ability of the citizens of Guyana to make and exercise judgements on their own behalf, we don’t presume to know the liquidity preferences of any individual citizen, there are some citizens who will be perfectly happy to forego a 22 ½ % gratuity in the interest of earning and becoming entitled to a post retirement pension when they retire, there are other citizens who might consciously and deliberately prefer to forego a post retirement pension upon their eventual retirement and instead receive today a 22 1/2 % on their monthly emoluments,” the Finance Minister noted .

He said government does not plan to impose restrictions on persons who wish to be paid their emoluments upfront.

“If you wish to go on the pensionable establishment you are entitled to do so obviously once you meet the requirements etc and we don’t prevent anybody from going on the pensionable service, if on the other hand you wish to receive a gratuity and not a post retirement pension then we allow you to exercise that choice,” the Finance Minister noted.

The Former APNU+AFC Government had removed a number of persons from contract employment, complaining that it had been costly.

The move by the former government had targeted doctors and some senior public servants. The Finance Minister reported today that all of those persons are back under contractural employment.

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