Premier Alex Scott?s pay should be increased by almost 80 percent to $200,000 a year, according to a a new Report tabled in the House of Assembly last night.

And a review board set up to look at politicians? salaries and to make recommendations on what full time Ministers should be paid also recommended that Ministers should get $150,000 if they were judged to be full time and $100,000 per year if they were part time, up from $78,856 now.

And MPs would receive a pay hike from $39,428 to $50,000 ? a 26.8 percent pay rise.

The recommendations were contained in the Report of the Ministers and Members of the Legislature Salaries Review Board, which was formed in July, 2005 to review the pay-scales of politicians and make recommendations to the Senate and House of Assembly.

The report recommended that the salary of the Premier should be increased to $150,000 per year in addition to an MP?s salary of $50,000.

Mr. Scott now earns $111,714, made up of the current MP?s salary of $39,428 and the Premier?s pay of $72,286. The proposed increase would be a raise of 79 percent.

The report also said Minister of Finance Paula Cox should get a salary of $170,000 per year as a full-time Minister ? or $120,000 as a part-timer. She now earns $95,286, it said.

And the pay-cheque of Deputy Premier Dr. Ewart Brown should increase to $162,000 per year as a full-time Minister, it said, or $112,000 as a part-timer.

Dr. Brown is currently paid $88,713 as Deputy Premier.

The review board said the proposed salaries could cost between $602,000 and $1,202,000 depending on how many Ministers were judged to be full-time.

?Further, any increases in salary levels will necessarily give rise to added costs with respect to related benefits such as pension rights and health insurance.?

The report added: ?Among the arguments for keeping remuneration for politicians systematically lower than that for senior private sector executives is that political office is a form of public service, rather than an occupation to be pursued for financial reward and personal gain,? it said.

?While, it is not for the Board to determine whether the job of a Minister of Cabinet is full-time or part-time, we are of the opinion that the role of Premier should be deemed full-time.?

In June 2005, Premier Alex Scott said seven out of 12 Ministers were full time and hinted the plan was to shrink Cabinet to around nine full-time Ministers running Super-Ministries.

?A review of the Civil Service in 1999 stated that there is a firm body of evidence to support the argument that there are too many separate Ministries in the Government of Bermuda,? the Report said.

?The main proposal was therefore to reduce the current 13 ministries to eight, each with a full-time Minister and each headed by a Permanent Secretary.?

And in May 2005, Mr. Scott said any Minister whose work outside of Government was deemed important enough that they cannot become a full-time Minister would be paid on a scale according to the amount of time they give.

However, the Report did not make a determination on whether or not Ministers should be part-time or full-time.

Because there was no statutory definition or guidance about what ?full-time? or ?part-time? actually meant, it would be up to Premier Scott to decide which Government Ministers worked longer hours depending on factors such as Ministry size, budget and workload.

The Report noted that in focus groups with Ministers, they all said they felt they were full-time.

Senators currently earn $26,287 per year but the Board said it saw nothing to justify anything beyond an increase linked to the percentage increase in the Consumer Price Index (CPI).

Other Officers ? including Opposition Leader Wayne Furbert, President of the Senate Alf Oughton, Speaker of the House of Assembly Stanley Lowe OBE, Vice-president of the Senate Dr. Walwyn Hughes, Deputy Speaker of the House of Assembly Dame Jennifer Smith, Parliamentary Secretaries (now called Junior Ministers), Government Whip Ottiwell Simmons and Opposition Whip John Barritt ? currently received a salary additional to that of an MP, it said, which should also be increased by a percentage set out by the CPI.

Last night Mr. Simmons said there was nothing in the Report to suggest it needed to be debated in the House and did not need any procedure other than implementation.

The Report said numerous Commonwealth countries ? including the Bahamas, the Cayman Islands, Jamaica, Jersey, Guernsey, the Isle of Man, Canada, the UK and Australia ? had established salary review boards, although it noted that there was no single formula for determining how politicians should be paid.

It said there basic duties required of MPs (who currently earned $39,428) ? that they attend House sessions, caucus meetings and constituency responsibilities ? had increased since single-seat constituencies were formed.