Brantley Clears Air on ‘Double Pay’
(ZIZ News) – Much has been said on social and mainstream media about a double salary being paid to Nevis’ Premier the Hon. Vance Amory and his Deputy, Hon. Mark Brantley.
Speaking on the most recent edition of “Working for You” on ZIZ Radio, Minister Brantley sought to clear the air on the issue, dismissing it simply as “noise”.
“If you doing double jobs, shouldn’t you receive double salary? That’s the thing I don’t understand. You give me two jobs to do; not you, the people give me two jobs to do,” Brantley said, noting that he’s “confused about that particular complaint.”
“When I was Leader of the Opposition in the Federal Parliament, I got a salary and I also received a salary as Deputy Premier; there was no noise there, nobody said a word. And so for me it’s puzzling that moving from that situation where I am now a full minister in both cabinets that you now hear this loud clamour. What is it? Is it a clamour about the amount or the principle because if it’s the principle then that clamour should have existed now eight or nine years that I’ve been in parliament because I’ve always received something here and something there,” he said.
Both Brantley and Amory serve in the Federal Cabinet and the Nevis Island Administration’s Cabinet and Brantley believes this gives them an opportunity to further promote the interest of the people of Nevis.
He added, “It gives me a much stronger voice in the Federal Cabinet to speak to matters that impact the people of Nevis. I think that for a long time we had laws, regulations, rules, policies being articulated at the federal level that impacted the people of Nevis, as a constituent element of the Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis, but which the people of Nevis had no input and I think that that now changes.”
“The Premier is there, I am there and when the Prime Minister or anybody else says something I say ‘hey, wait a minute that is going to have a bad effect on the people of number nine who I represent’ and so that voice that is so necessary is now in the Federal Parliament,” the Minister continued.