???KIM­BER­LY MACK­HAN

?Prime Min­is­ter Patrick Man­ning and all his Gov­ern­ment min­is­ters should cut their salaries by half. This is the view of Siparia MP Kam­la Per­sad-Biss­esar.

"If sac­ri­fices are need­ed now, then they should be made by Gov­ern­ment first," she said. "Cut it and cut it now. Cut their salaries."

She al­so called on Gov­ern­ment to make pub­lic the salaries of all the chief ex­ec­u­tive of­fi­cers (CEOs) of State boards and spe­cial pur­pose com­pa­nies, ap­pointees and spe­cial ad­vi­sors and in­sti­tute cuts in their pay as well.

The Siparia MP was speak­ing dur­ing her con­tri­bu­tion to the 2009/2010 bud­get de­bate in the Low­er House yes­ter­day.

"I am call­ing on the Gov­ern­ment to al­so cut the salaries of all the CEOs and ex­ec­u­tive di­rec­tors of all the State and spe­cial pur­pos­es com­pa­nies in half.

"Yes, in half. In fact, I want a fixed salary rate to be in­sti­tut­ed for them," Per­sad-Biss­esar said. "And then, reg­u­larise these salaries so they work for the same amounts like per­ma­nent sec­re­taries." She al­so said the chair­man of the Pe­tro­le­um Com­pa­ny of Trinidad and To­ba­go (Petrotrin), Mal­colm Jones, earned an in­come of $75,000 each month and the CEOs of oth­er state en­ter­pris­es such as the Na­tion­al In­fra­struc­ture De­vel­op­ment Com­pa­ny Lim­it­ed (Nid­co) re­ceived a salary of at least $50,000 a month.

"The mil­lions of dol­lars saved should be put to­ward pur­chas­ing hos­pi­tal beds, med­i­cines, pro­vid­ing wa­ter, up­grad­ing drainage, re­pair­ing roads and bridges, ren­o­vat­ing the most di­lap­i­dat­ed schools and pro­vid­ing oth­er tan­gi­bles, di­rect­ly im­prov­ing the lives of our peo­ple," Per­sad-Biss­esar said. "I don't ex­pect this Gov­ern­ment to do so, how­ev­er," she added.