In April 2007, Singapore’s Parliament debated the issue of
ministerial salaries. Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, in defending
the proposed revision then, said, “We have decided to be open,
upfront, transparent – what you see is what you get (Wysiwyg), or,
in this case, what you see is what they get.”
PM Lee reiterated this position in March 2009, in an interview
with the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). “We go on a system
which is open, honest, transparent,” he said in response to the
interviewer’s question on his salary.
The issue of ministers’ salary is currently being debated
between Foreign Affairs Minister, Mr George Yeo, and the secretary
general of the Singapore Democratic Party, Dr Chee Soon Juan, on
Facebook.
In the exchange, Mr Yeo seems to have contradicted what the
Prime Minister said:
“The salary ranges include a discretionary component
decided by the PM which is confidential,” said Mr Yeo in
response to Dr Chee’s question on how much Mr Yeo himself is being
paid.
Dr Chee replied: “First you say that ministers’ salaries are in
the public domain. Then you say that there is a discretionary
component that is confidential. However you put it, the bottom-line
is that ministers’ salaries are secret. I don’t understand why you
keep insisting that they are in the public domain.”
Dr Chee added that the “discretionary component decided by the
PM is not small – it makes up nearly half of each minister’s
salary.”
In December 2007, civil servants’ salary was revised upwards to
77 per cent of the benchmarks against the private sector. The Prime
Minister has discretion on how much bonuses each minister receives.
This includes a GDP Bonus which is tied to the performance of the
economy, and a Performance Bonus, decided by the PM. Depending on
the grade of the minister and the state of the economy, bonuses
range from 0 months to 14 months.
“One third of the Ministers’ package is presently variable,
after the revision, half is going to be variable,” the Prime
Minister explained in Parliament in 2007, “and it depends on two
things – the GDP, how well the economy is performing and his
individual performance.” PM Lee added, “The Prime Minister decides
how much the Minister will get, how he has performed in his
portfolio.”
The Prime Minister’s salary is currently S$3.87 million, while
that of his ministers range from $1.5 million to $3.4 million.
In response to the public’s letters to the Straits Times and on
the Internet about civil servants salaries in 2007, the Public
Service Division (PSD) said, “Ministers do not receive any perks.
The salary is everything there is.”
While it may be true that the “salary is everything there is”,
Mr George Yeo’s remarks that there is a “discretionary component”
in the calculation may need to be further explained by the
government. Was Mr Yeo referring to the bonus component of the
salary?
At the moment, how much each minister receives in terms of
bonuses is kept secret. Singaporeans do not know, for example, how
much in terms of bonuses Home Affairs Minister Wong Kan Seng
received, in light of the escape of Singapore’s number one
suspected terrorist, Mas Selamat Kastari, in 2007.
Since the PM and various ministers have insisted that
remuneration is “transparent” and, according to Minister Mentor Lee
Kuan Yew, “completely above board”, Singaporeans deserve to know
what this “confidential discretionary component” is.
http://sgblogs.com/entry/what-will-tonight/357513
You mean they have a discretionary component that is not shown
in public records?
What is on public record is the minimum amount they are getting?
