Ministerial salaries review committee to adopt very
different model: Gerard Ee
By Hetty Musfirah | Posted: 22
May 2011 1417 hrs
SINGAPORE: The Chairman of the committee that's
undertaking a review of ministerial salaries in Singapore, Mr
Gerard Ee said his committee will adopt a very different model to
assess how much ministers should be paid.
It will use job specifications of ministers as a starting
point.
Currently, the salaries are benchmarked to two thirds of the median
income of the top eight earners from six professions such as
lawyers, in the private sector.
Speaking to Channel NewsAsia, Mr Ee said there should also be other
points of reference, such as a general wage level.
This means when the economy goes up or down, the salaries should
also have a mechanism to reflect this.
"The big difference is that this (model), you look at the work and
you say 'for this work, for this skill, for this knowledge in the
private sector, how much will you have to pay to have someone
perform such a work?'," said Mr Ee.
"It's a very different model altogether."
Mr Ee said he accepted the role after he was approached by Deputy
Prime Minister and Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam less
than a week ago.
The 61-year-old, who's a familiar face in the charity sector, is
Chairman of the National Kidney Foundation and Changi General
Hospital.
He was also a former Nominated MP.
He said his committee will comprise of independent-minded people,
who are known to speak their minds.
He added that they also have the intellect to tackle such a major
task.
Mr Ee said the committee will need to collect a lot of data
involving experts in human resource.
It will come up with recommendations that still need to be robustly
debated in Parliament.
Mr Ee added that the committee will not rush matters.
However, any changes to the salary scales will take effect
retrospectively from the day the ministers were sworn in.
"You can expect, that in all probability it will be a cut," added
Mr Ee.
- CNA
