Workers’ Party Non-Constituency Member of Parliament (NCMP) Leon Perera is set to ask Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong about the salary structure of civil servants, in Parliament today. The opposition politician has filed the following questions, according to the Order Paper of Parliament:
“To ask the Prime Minister (a) how often does the Public Service Division review the salary structure of the Civil Service; (b) when was the last review conducted; and (c) what are the salary scales for each of the Management Executive pay grades from 2010 to 2017.”
The WP NCMP’s questions on the salary structure of civil servants come after he questioned PM Lee on the bonuses paid to Ministers in Parliament, in September and October. On 10 Sept, Perera had filed the following questions:
“To ask the Prime Minister in each of the past five years, what has been the bonus paid to Cabinet Ministers in terms of (i) the average total number of bonus months (ii) the highest total number of bonus months paid to an individual Minister and (iii) the lowest total number of bonus months paid to an individual Minister.”
Choosing to answer the question via a written reply, PM Lee revealed that political office-holders received an average performance bonus of 4.1 months in 2017. The performance bonus is awarded by the Prime Minister to political office-holders based on their contributions to their immediate portfolios and the Government as a whole.
The performance bonus, however, is only a part of the bonus package political office-holders receive each year.
PM Lee actually acknowledged that the bonus framework for political office-holders involves four components but did not reveal the total average bonus that was paid out to political office-holders under the three other components.
Besides monthly pay and the performance bonus, political office-holders also receive a 13th month non-pensionable annual allowance, an annual variable component (AVC) as paid to civil servants and a National Bonus linked to Singapore’s economic growth
It is unclear why PM Lee did not include the 13th month bonus, AVC bonus and National Bonus and provide Perera with the total average months bonus, highest months bonus paid to an individual minister and lowest months bonus paid to an individual minister.
It is also interesting to note that Perera had asked for the bonus figures that were awarded to ministers. It is curious that PM Lee chose to use the term “political office-holders” since political office-holders also refers to elected politicians who are not yet full ministers.
PM Lee’s response sparked a backlash among Singaporeans who accused the PM of skirting the question and asked the Government to be transparent about how much bonuses ministers are paid.
Then in October, Perera again posed parliamentary questions to PM Lee on the bonuses paid to Ministers. On 1 Oct, he asked PM Lee to clarify on what the National Bonus and the AVC that were paid to Cabinet Ministers in the last five years:
“To ask the Prime Minister in each year from 2013 to 2017 (a) what has been the actual National Bonus (in months) paid to Cabinet Ministers; and (b) what has been the actual Annual Variable Component (in months) paid to Cabinet Ministers.”
In Parliament, Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean fiercely defended the ministerial salary structure and bonus framework and shot back that the WP’s proposal for the salary of an entry-level minister is similar to the ruling party’s model.