CABINET ministers and Members of Parliament will continue to take a 20 per cent salary cut for another financial year as the Government tightens spending in an effort to restore fiscal discipline.
Presenting the 2026-2027 National Budget yesterday, Minister for Finance Esrom Immanuel said the salary reduction formed part of a wider package of cost-containment measures aimed at keeping Government expenditure under control.
He said the Government was also slashing funding for vacant positions across the public service by 50 per cent, with recruitment restricted to critical frontline and specialised roles needed to maintain essential services.
“Recruitment will continue only for critical frontline positions and specialised roles necessary to maintain essential service delivery,” Mr Immanuel said.
He said a comprehensive review of the civil service would also be undertaken, with staff from overstaffed agencies redeployed to ministries facing manpower shortages, supported by training and transition programs.
He said tighter controls on overseas and domestic travel, vehicle use, fuel consumption and other operational spending would also remain in force.
He said the savings had enabled Government to absorb more than $200 million in additional expenditure while keeping the 2026-2027 Budget at about $4.87 billion, almost unchanged from the current financial year.
“Following these cost control measures, and after accommodating additional expenditures of over $200 million, we are still maintaining overall expenditures at around $4.87 billion.
“This is just a marginal increase of less than one per cent.”
Mr Immanuel said the Government intended to continue restraining expenditure over the medium term, warning that further reductions in operating costs would require “national consensus and political bipartisanship” because they would involve difficult decisions on the size of the civil service, social spending, support for the sugar sector and overall Government operations.
