Faced with the prospect of a barrage of criticism from the Independent Senators, that was already engaged in by significant newsmakers and a public cynical about the motives of a government bringing legislation to enhance the pension benefits of MPs and judges, Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar has done the sensible thing and temporarily put a halt to debate on the bills.
As a means of appeasing conflict and achieving a more balanced approach to updating the pensions of these public officers, the PM has suggested referring the bills to a select committee of the Senate.The committee should seek the advice of experts in the field of actuarial science and other such professionals in an effort to calculate the long-term impact of the projected increases on Government's fiscal operations and comparisons to the pensions of similarly placed workers.
The absence of such facts and figures to back up the bills is one of their weak points. And as pointed out by retired head of the Public Service Reginald Dumas, this consultative approach should have been adopted before the bills were brought to the Parliament.
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