Veto of 30 percent bonus

The Issue: The repeal of the 30 percent bonus, a politically correct law, but a luxury the NMI can’t afford from the outset.

Our View: We praise the courage of leadership to eliminate a bankrupting program that drains our meager resources.

The repeal of the 30 percent bonus given to public sector employees who choose early retirement is a good decision on the part of local leadership. It takes courage to deal with difficult issues of substance in plain fashion. It’s a policy matter to guard the solvency of the NMI’s retirement program.

From the outset, the law was riddled with unfairness especially for private sector employees who contribute by way of taxes to grant public sector employees better and bigger perks. It’s time that this attitude is reversed with greater concentration on encouraging indigenous employees to seek employment in the private sector.

The years we’ve spent building up perks for non-essential public sector employees has turned the definition of success of indigenous employees solely focused on securing government jobs. Such errant attitude has contributed to a wide gap in income between employees of both sectors. It is for this reason that prospective local employees thirst for more non-productive jobs in the public sector.

Through the years too, we’ve nurtured a ruinous attitude that jobs in the private sector are for failures. In the process, we built the notion that certain job categories are for guest workers. Such isn’t the attitude across the country where employees abundantly place greater importance on bringing home the bacon, never mind the fallacies of prestigious jobs.

This juvenile attitude also contributed to viewing entrepreneurship as the preserve for failures who can’t land non-productive government jobs. This attitude too must change for we know that the establishment and creation of jobs and revenue is done by hardworking businessmen. Such wealth and jobs creation never begins at the public sector.

The NMI can’t stop with the repeal of the 30 percent bonus. It must persistently review its meager resources so to effectively eliminate all non-essential expenditure. And it takes greater resolve and management skills to adopt such view in order to prudently guard the public treasury. Si Yuus Maase`!