Briceño Hesitant to Cut Ministers’ Allowances

A call from inside the government is putting ministers’ allowances in the spotlight. Deputy Prime Minister Cordel Hyde recently suggested that ministers’ annual allowances should be cut. PM Briceno argues that ministers use their allowances to assist people and cutting those funds would mean cutting necessary financial aid to constituents. Here is how he puts it.

 

Prime Minister John Briceño  

“But again we have not had a chance to give it a serious discussion. I think at the next Cabinet we will be able to have a discussion about how that works. The point is that people in the media that want to make an issue over the allowances is that, I know you are aware that ministers go beyond the call of duty. Every day they get calls, people wanting help. They get calls they need assistance with education, a death in the family, or somebody is sick. So, removing that allowance will only let me have less money to help people. It is not as if they are keeping that allowance to themselves, we give it back, that and more. So, I am a bit hesitant, just because it sounds good for the politics of it, the reality is that our ministers and myself, we go beyond the call of duty. Every single day we assist so many people in so many different way.”

 

Attention readers: This online newscast is a direct transcript of our evening television broadcast. When speakers use Kriol, we have carefully rendered their words using a standard spelling system.

 

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