THE Coalition Accountability Reform & Empowerment (CARE) leader Matthew Wale has condemned the recent decision by the Parliamentary Entitlements Commission (PEC) to significantly increase the salaries of all members of Parliament. 

Wale said PEC will be abolished if the CARE coalition forms the next government.

The former Leader of Opposition was responding to a question during the Q&A session at CARE coalition’s launch in Honiara on Wednesday this week.

Wale has described the PEC decision as untimely and utterly insensitive. 

“Firstly, it needs to be understood who will be really benefiting from this after April 1st. 

“There is no caretaker Opposition. 

“There is also no caretaker Independent Office. Which means this move sets to happen before elections will only benefit the caretaker Prime Minister and his caretaker Ministers,” Wale explains.  

He also described the move as utterly insensitive to the current plight of Solomon Islanders under a struggling economy. 

“How can we justify such increases when our healthcare system is in crisis, when our roads are deteriorating, and when our children’s education is compromised? 

“This is a slap in the face to every Solomon Islander struggling to make ends meet in this struggling economy,” he said.

Wale said the CARE coalition policy on the matter is to replace the PEC with a higher salary commission so that all remuneration matters are considered holistically, and not in isolation as is the current situation.

“Our policy is to get rid of this commission altogether and replace it with a new high salaries commission. 

“This independent body would oversee the salaries of all public servants, ensuring fairness, transparency, and accountability,” Wale said. 

He said government employees have never had a commission that looks after their salaries.

He said the current system only favours MPs and not government employees and this must change.

He concludes that the cancer of MPs receiving special treatment or consideration that elevate them above the very people they are elected must be cut off. 

“We need a government that cares for the welfare of all Solomon Islanders, and are willing to forgo personal financial benefits for the national good because ‘WE CARE’,” Wale said.

ENDS//…..