Sto­ries by Akash Sama­roo

Se­nior Re­porter

akash.sama­roo@cnc3.co.tt

With the na­tion­al bud­get ap­proach­ing, both Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar and Fi­nance Min­is­ter Dav­en­dranath Tan­coo have failed to pro­vide a de­fin­i­tive time­line for when pub­lic ser­vants will re­ceive the promised ten per cent wage in­crease.

When ques­tioned by Guardian Me­dia yes­ter­day, Min­is­ter Tan­coo re­fused to an­swer. Prime Min­is­ter Per­sad-Bisses­sar, mean­while, of­fered on­ly that, “God will­ing,” the promise of the in­crease will be de­liv­ered, adding that Gov­ern­ment is search­ing for the nec­es­sary funds.

The ten per cent wage in­crease was a key cam­paign promise by the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC), en route to its land­slide vic­to­ry at the April 28 polls. The pledge earned the back­ing of the Pub­lic Ser­vices As­so­ci­a­tion (PSA), whose sup­port be­came a promi­nent fea­ture at UNC po­lit­i­cal ral­lies.

With the new Gov­ern­ment weeks away from its first full bud­get pre­sen­ta­tion, Guardian Me­dia asked Tan­coo if funds are be­ing set aside to keep its promise in the up­com­ing fi­nan­cial year (Oc­to­ber 1, 2025-Sep­tem­ber 30, 2026).

“No com­ment at this point,” Tan­coo said out­side the Red House, as he made his way to the Par­lia­men­tary sit­ting.

Guardian Me­dia pressed the min­is­ter, re­mind­ing him that Bud­get Day is fast ap­proach­ing.

He replied, “It is very close, but you know this ten per cent and so on and all these are based on ne­go­ti­a­tions. Have you been in­vit­ed to ne­go­ti­a­tions yet?”

The min­is­ter was then asked if ne­go­ti­a­tions will be­gin in the next fis­cal year.

“No fur­ther com­ment,” he again replied.

Tan­coo was fi­nal­ly asked what mes­sage he had for pub­lic ser­vants who may be grow­ing im­pa­tient.

“Have faith, have con­fi­dence, we keep our word,” he replied with a smile be­fore walk­ing off.

PSA pres­i­dent Fe­l­isha Thomas had pre­vi­ous­ly urged her mem­bers to hold strain un­til Bud­get Day, in hopes of fi­nal­ly hear­ing when the long-promised in­crease would be de­liv­ered.

Guardian Me­dia then ap­proached Per­sad-Bisses­sar with sim­i­lar ques­tions.

“God will­ing, we keep our promis­es,” Per­sad-Bisses­sar said when asked if her Gov­ern­ment is set­ting aside funds in the next fis­cal year to meet its com­mit­ment to pub­lic ser­vants.

Asked for more clar­i­ty, and if she can con­firm that the promise will be kept in the up­com­ing fi­nan­cial year, the PM would on­ly re­peat, “God will­ing, we will keep our promise.”

The Prime Min­is­ter added, “(We’re) still work­ing on it. (We’re) look­ing for mon­ey.”

With a chuck­le she con­clud­ed, “If you have any, give us some.”

De­spite the lack of clear an­swers, PSA pres­i­dent Thomas yes­ter­day said she re­mains hope­ful that by this year’s Bud­get Day, pub­lic ser­vants will re­ceive greater clar­i­ty on when the promised in­crease will be de­liv­ered.

“We have been con­stant­ly en­gag­ing with the var­i­ous min­istries, and we have been con­stant­ly giv­en the as­sur­ance that we could look for­ward to some­thing pos­i­tive very soon. And I do be­lieve that the Gov­ern­ment will ful­fil that promise,” she told Guardian Me­dia.

Asked if the PSA has been giv­en con­crete as­sur­ances of that, Thomas said no.

“I wouldn’t say any­thing con­crete but we have been giv­en the com­mit­ment that they are find­ing ways to en­sure that it is done,” she replied.

Thomas ad­mit­ted her mem­bers have been ask­ing ques­tions and they were told to look for­ward to Sep­tem­ber/Oc­to­ber, when the bud­get is ex­pect­ed to be pre­sent­ed.

“Be­yond that, I know the mem­ber­ship will be com­ing pa­tient­ly. But per­sons are ask­ing when and we have said to them Sep­tem­ber, Oc­to­ber,” she re­vealed.

Asked whether ques­tions about her im­par­tial­i­ty in this mat­ter may arise, giv­en her af­fil­i­a­tion with the UNC, Thomas said, “I have nev­er ap­proached my en­gage­ment with man­age­ment on be­half of the mem­ber­ship with­out tak­ing a fair ap­proach. It’s the same ap­proach I’m tak­ing with the Gov­ern­ment. They have giv­en a com­mit­ment just like oth­er per­sons have giv­en com­mit­ments in the past and we have al­lowed them the op­por­tu­ni­ty to hold to their promis­es.”