Cabinet briefing  - Committee reviewing salaries of Constitutional appointees presents preliminary proposals   |21 July 2023

Vice-President Afif during the press briefing (Photo: Yann Dinan)

The Independent Committee appointed by the President to review the salaries of Constitutional appointees presented its preliminary proposals to the cabinet on Wednesday where it explained the facts, principles and context underpinning its deliberations.

This was during the scheduled cabinet briefing chaired by President Wavel Ramkalawan, in which a number of policy memoranda were approved.

When elaborating on the policies discussed, in his weekly briefing yesterday, Vice-President Ahmed Afif reiterated that there were significant anomalies in the remuneration of chief executives in state-owned enterprises which exceeded the pay of constitutional appointees including that of the president. This was also noticeable in comparison to the salaries of constitutional posts in other countries.

The committee’s creation was announced during last year’s budget address. He explained the government had to carry out the exercise to make it fair to everyone since there was a recent 10 % increase in the salary of the public sector.

“The reason why this cannot happen for Constitutional appointees is because their salaries do not get decided in an administrative way. The salary is decided under the constitution, which gives specific laws for the Constitutional appointees,” he added. This includes the president, vice-president, ministers, auditor general, attorney general, members of the National Assembly, and the judiciary among others. 

Mr Afif said the government therefore needs to carry out the exercise to see where they are positioned today.

“For people of their calibre, competence, experience, and their responsibility, there needs to be a review to see if they are good where they are today, salary wise.”

The last time the law for the Constitutional appointees was reviewed was back in 2013, when the government reviewed the Public Service Salary Act.

“All the salaries of Constitutional appointees were based on that time period and it was necessary to do a review because every other salary was moving up,” explained the vice- president.

He emphasised that salaries should depend on experience and competence.

The review will put in place a legal framework that will define certain salaries that are consistent with what a person at a specific level should be getting. For example, the ideal salary of a judge for their responsibility, competence and experience to entice them to stay.

Mr Afif mentioned that the anomalies include certain salaries such as that of the president, which was reviewed ten years ago.

 “There are people in the government itself getting more than him (president). We cannot do anything about that because it is defined under the law. This is why the committee will review and see what is in the public sector and what salary is getting paid, even from other countries for similar posts,” said the vice-president.

“The president who has the role of being head of state, goes above the Chief Justice, over the President of the Court of Appeal, over the Speaker of the National Assembly because he is the executive chief, so he is the overhead of all these institutions. All of this is something the committee, independently, will have to analyse. The government will open all the books and all the pay slips to see what people are making.”

According to Mr Afif, at present they are yet to complete the analysis and are presenting only a preliminary report. After the analysis is done, there will be a final recommendation from the committee.

He said it is not clear when the exercise will be completed, however, based on the work they are currently doing, he expects the report will be ready by the third quarter of this year or the final quarter.

The committee will share its proposals with stakeholders, to solicit wider views, before making final recommendations to the government.

Cabinet also approved amendments to the Civil Code of Seychelles Act 2020 and the Curatelle Act 2021 to provide for the curator, rather than a Court, to appoint a fiduciary or executor of the estate of a deceased person, upon application.

Amendments to the Curatelle Act would provide a legal framework for dealing with cases where the affairs of the estate of a deceased person had not been concluded satisfactorily within the prescribed two-year period.

VP Afif explained that there was a problem in the civil code when the curatelle was put in place and the position of the curator was defined. The curator should be under the new civil code and the curatelle should have been that person who appoints fiduciary. “Where we think was the problem, is if ever the fiduciary that was appointed was dead or the executor either died or could not function, there should be provisions to appoint another executor.” However, the power to appoint another executor was given to the court under the law. “There was something missing in the law that is why now, the curator appoints the executor,” he explained.

Secondly, there was a prescription in the law that made it so that all the appointed executors before July 31, 2022, had to terminate all their work and organise all their successions by July 31, 2024.

For the cases where the executor was not agreed or finalised before July 31, 2022, there was no deadline for them to finalise the succession. “So it could continue for a longer time. As we know in Seychelles, there are a lot of cases that involve huge pieces of land so people who would inherit the land are not finding a solution.”

What is proposed is that those who never appointed their executor and have not found a solution in the succession, have until July 31, 2024.

Cabinet also approved amendments to the Central Bank Act with the aim of modernising it to reflect its enhanced mandate since the original Act of 2004. The amendments eliminated existing ambiguities, strengthened its governance, and took account of best international practice as reflected in the SADC Central Bank Model Law, as well as the advice provided by the IMF.

VP Afif explained that this essentially reinforces the role of the Central Bank and the powers of the board and that it imposes certain obligations on the rest of the government. “For example, when they are proposing new laws, the Central Bank has to be consulted in these areas.”

During its sitting, cabinet also approved the establishment of the Family Mediation Service which would assist couples with children who are undergoing a divorce or separation process. The mediation service would establish an advisory and consultative mechanism that would benefit all concerned, but with a primary focus on the well-being of the children involved.

This will fall under the department of family. “It is simply something new where the different couples, the people affected will have the ability to go to professionals and speak to them in an environment which is friendly, not like a court room. They can mutually agree to do certain things instead of having conditions imposed on them. We believe that there are benefits to that.” It is hoped it would reduce the traumatic experience of the children that often arises during these situations.

Cabinet has also decided that no license should be granted to shops for the sale of alcohol in the vicinity of the SPTC bus terminal in Victoria, and that the Seychelles Licensing Authority would take steps to revoke such licenses that has already been issued.

This is simply to keep the law and order, explained VP Afif. “We believe that this did not happen before but now it seems that there are one or two operators in the business and the government has decided that it should not issue any licenses or cancel any licenses in this respect.”

Sunny Esparon/press release