Friday 2 September 2011

Review expected to be completed before year end



The Committee to review salaries of the President, Prime Minister, political appointment holders and Members of Parliament, has received some queries recently.

We would like to thank members of the public and media for their continued interest in this review.

We received more than 500 suggestions through emails and letters at the close of the public feedback on 20 June 2011. We are carefully looking through all the inputs, including views and proposals, some of which were very detailed. We want to repeat that we appreciate all the ideas and suggestions submitted to us and the Committee will consider every one of them for their suitability and appropriateness. We are doing all these with the help of a HR consultant, Mercer (Singapore) Pte Ltd.

We are getting comments from both retired and current politicians. We want to do a thorough job. The Committee expects to complete the task before the end of the year.

Just to reiterate, the Committee is reviewing the basis and level of salaries for the President, Prime Minister, political appointment holders and Members of Parliament to help ensure honest and competent government

The Government has said that it will base the new salaries on the Committee’s recommendations, and the Prime Minister earlier announced that the new salaries arising from this review will be backdated to 21 May 2011, the date when the new Government took office.

As announced earlier by PM Lee Hsien Loong, the revised salary for the President will commence from the new term of the President ie 1 September 2011. The former President, Mr S R Nathan, has earlier informed PM Lee that he would adopt the new salary from 21 May 2011.


GERARD EE