SENIOR technocrats in the Portmore Municipal Council should soon be seeing an increase in their pay packages, to move them on par with their colleagues in other municipal corporations.

On Wednesday, Member of Parliament for St Catherine Southern Fitz Jackson used a sitting of Parliament’s Public Administration and Appropriations Committee (PAAC) to raise the issue of Portmore technocrats being paid at rates below their counterparts.

Jackson was supported by chief executive officer of the Portmore Municipal Council Naudia Crosskill, who told the PAAC that the anomaly has existed for years.

“The Portmore city municipality officers continue to be paid at a lower rate, and if you look in the report (tabled at the PAAC)…you would see that Portmore is the third-highest in terms of building applications that are processed, but our director of planning, for example, is paid way less than the other municipalities which get fewer applications for processing,” said Crosskill.

“We are small in geographic size but way larger than many other parishes in terms of population,” Crosskill argued.

But there was immediate good news from permanent secretary in the Ministry of Local Government, Marsha Henry-Martin.

“This anomaly, as with the entire structure with the local authorities, is expected to be addressed before the end of this financial year,” Henry-Martin told the PAAC to a cheer from Jackson, whose constituency includes a section of Portmore.