PNP President Portia Simpson Miller.

THE OPPOSITION People's National Party (PNP) has said the Government has not gone far enough in cutting the size of the Cabinet.

Jamaica House on Monday announced that three ministers had resigned.

The size of the executive now stands at 17, two fewer than the 19 that had previously been in place.

"I don't think that it was determined by budgetary austerity objectives," PNP General Secretary Peter Bunting told The Gleaner Monday.

Golding's reshuffle of the Cabinet is expected to save taxpayers $11 million per year. Should there be salary cuts for all 60 MPs, the total savings for the public's purse would be just over $30 million per year.

Salary cut

However, there are indications that PNP MPs have not warmed to the 10 per cent salary cut proposed by the prime minister. PNP sources said that a consideration of some Opposition MPs is that unlike most government MPs who are ministers, they do not receive perks such as housing, entertainment and motor-vehicle privileges.

"Is it that he is asking the regular member of parliament to send home their helper or stop assisting needy students with lunch money?" one PNP MP said.

Ordinarily, an MP earns just over $2.5 million per year, less than half the prime minister's $5.4-million yearly salary. Cabinet ministers earn just over $4 million, junior ministers a shade over $3.5 million yearly, approximately $500,000 more than parliamentary secretaries.

Meanwhile, Portia Simpson Miller, PNP president, described as "a show of tokenism", Golding's decision to take a 15 per cent salary cut and to forego a seven per cent increase that should have taken effect April 1.

"More has to be done to truly address the economic situation the nation is faced with at this time," Simpson Miller said.

"It would have been a far more effective measure that could yield more measurable and significant savings to the public purse for the prime minister to cut the size of his oversize Cabinet," Simpson Miller said in a statement before the Cabinet shake-up was announced.

daraine.luton@gleanerjm.com