Government Ministers were first in line to be paid big salary increases approved by Parliament after the legislation was pushed through Senate on the last day of business before the summer recess.

Other parliamentarians and members of the legislature should receive their back-dated pay increases by tomorrow.

This clarification by Assistant Cabinet Secretary Judith Hall-Bean follows a claim that members of the Government had banked their pay rise before the Cup Match holiday at the start of August.

Shadow Finance Minister Patricia Gordon-Pamplin reportedly made that assertion earlier this week leading Mrs. Hall-Bean to state that was not the case. She said a delay in the pay increase legislation being debated by Senate had meant it was not possible for the new salary structure ? which gives large increases to Ministers including an 80 percent pay rise for Premier Alex Scott ? to be put in place by the end of July.

Mrs. Hall-Bean said no Minister or member of the legislature had received any part of the pay increase before Cup Match and she denied the Premier or his Ministers had made efforts to secure their payments before anyone else.

?Neither the Premier nor any Minister had any role in the implementation of the approved increases to their salaries.

?The implementation of the approved salary restructure was purely an administrative exercise, and processed by members of the civil service,? she said.

However, the salary increases are being processed in batches beginning with Government Ministers who had received their cheques on August 11.

All other members and officers of the legislature should have received their retroactive payments by August 31.