MPs added 200 thousand to their monthly salaries: they tripled their reimbursement of expenses
5 December 14:20
The MPs adopted the budget for the next year and did not forget about themselves: they tripled their compensation for parliamentary expenses, and now each of them will receive about 200 thousand hryvnias a month, in addition to their salary, which was currently at the level of 60-70 thousand hryvnias, but will also increase next year. But since no one controls where MPs spend the money allocated for parliamentary expenses, they can only be congratulated on the addition.
According to MP Mariana Bezuhla, a total of UAH 333 million was allocated for MPs, which is more than this year. The parliamentary program of the Verkhovna Rada is 0.04% (!) of all budget expenditures of UAH 4.78 trillion.
In 2026, the Verkhovna Rada apparatus will be allocated UAH 3.89 billion. This includes salaries, MPs’ allowances, assistants, business trips, compensations – all expenses for MPs, including payment for assistants, travel and rental housing (if there is such a need). And there is usually a need, as even the Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada, Ruslan Stefanchuk, is able to rent a house from his mother-in-law and receive compensation for it.
UAH 2.02 billion is allocated for the legislative activities of the Verkhovna Rada. UAH 1.7 billion is allocated for maintenance and organizational, information and analytical, logistical support. UAH 80 thousand is allocated for coverage of the VRU’s activities through parliamentary broadcasting and the Voice of Ukraine newspaper.
Next year’s expenditure rates per MP will be as follows:
- Travel expenses – UAH 7,500
- Funds for consultant assistants – UAH 145,766.4
- Salaries of assistants – UAH 32,068.6
- Reimbursement of expenses for the maintenance of premises – UAH 167 per month
Compensation for the cost of renting an apartment or hotel room on average per month – 19,770, and a total of 237,250 UAH was allocated.
As the subsistence minimum for working people will rise from UAH 3,028 to UAH 3,328 next year, the salaries of MPs will also change, without additional payments:
- An MP (member of the committee) will receive a salary of UAH 33,280 (previously UAH 30,280)
- Deputy Chairman of the Committee – UAH 31,188.4 (previously UAH 27,645.2)
- Chairman of the Committee – UAH 28,182 (previously UAH 31,794)
- Deputy Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada – UAH 33,308 (UAH 29,524)
- First Deputy Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada – UAH 34,822 (UAH 30,865)
- The Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada – UAH 36,336 (previously UAH 32,208)
These are bare salaries without allowances, for example, for an academic degree, as well as compensation and reimbursements. And, in fact, an MP will have an average salary of 60 thousand UAH plus 200 thousand UAH for deputy expenses per month, not including travel expenses, etc.
200 thousand for out-of-pocket expenses
Most MPs do not mind this addition, because they do not have to pay drivers, assistants, and maintain inefficient reception offices out of their own pockets. The document states that MPs will be reimbursed for all expenses related to the performance of their parliamentary duties. The amount is three monthly salaries, which are not subject to taxation.
MP Mariana Bezuhla believes that “all MPs should receive only white salaries.” At the same time, she emphasized that she herself had never “received a salary in an envelope”.
“Increasing the official salary to reduce the risk of corruption among colleagues is a frank step towards a civilized understanding of who a statesman is and what and how he should receive for his activities, rather than populist slogans of refusing to receive an official salary and a “black cash” for lobbying amendments to laws, etc.” she added.
MP Anatoliy Burmich explained on Vechir.LIVE that this increase only applies to representation expenses, maintenance of assistants, travel expenses, etc. Previously, 63 thousand UAH were allocated for these purposes, and these funds were “sorely lacking.”
“Everything else is maintenance. I pay for a driver, and I have an assistant, for example, one of whom receives UAH 50,000 and the other UAH 42,000. We maintain the office, [pay for] trips, hotels. No one pays for this. All this is paid for from the money that was allocated for maintenance,” he explained.
And MP Ruslan Horbenko said that the extra money would help MPs live honestly, if they want to.
What did the servants of the people earn?
As a former assistant to one of the MPs of the 6th convocation told Kommersant, rarely did any MPs live on one salary. And most of them were silver-necked until 2012 and 2014, when they entered the Rada, to put it mildly.
“The most modest earnings were from deputy appeals, for which assistants took from $50. For inquiries, they charged from $100. But these business rates applied to people who were solvent, and they worked for free in constituencies for voters. At that time, a deputy’s inquiry solved many problems, it was taken into account, and criminal liability was provided for ignoring it. MPs’ inquiries were sent everywhere – to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Prosecutor General’s Office, the Customs, city and regional councils, etc. For example, to speed up the investigation of a criminal case, and when a deputy is interested, it is already a signal, it cost from $1,000. It could cost as much as $10,000 to signal the tax authorities to pay attention to a competitor,” says the former MP’s aide.
But the most lucrative job was writing a bill that the client needed. Here, the price depended on the issue itself and whether there was a chance that it would be supported. Sometimes, in order to get support, I had to “grease” my colleagues for the client’s money. And to actively promote the idea in the press and social media in a way that would cause a convenient resonance.
Today, we can safely say that MPs’ inquiries are a thing of the past, they are ignored by everyone, and they no longer carry as much weight as they used to. The only thing left is the writing of laws for a customer, but this is also quite rare. Currently, as evil tongues proclaim, MPs are given envelopes with certain amounts of money for “representation expenses” before important votes. But judging by the fixed amount per month, this is over.
In the old days, MPs even received $30
And there were times when MPs’ salaries were not much different from the salaries of ordinary Ukrainians. Let’s not take into account the distant nineties, when MPs’ salaries ranged from $1,000 to $30 in 1993 and $300 in the following years, and only in the early 2000s did they rise to $2,000.
A radical increase in salaries occurred in 2005, when Yulia Tymoshenko was head of the government, and she equated the position of MP with that of a member of the Cabinet of Ministers. And payments to MPs immediately skyrocketed from 3.4-4.5 thousand UAH to 14-21 thousand UAH (1750 dollars). At the time, this was explained by the fight against bribery.
The salary remained at this level until the revolutionary year of 2014, when Arseniy Yatsenyuk’s government reduced the MPs’ allowance to 6,500 UAH ($545). But in 2015, their salaries were increased again to 17,600 UAH. By the way, in 2016, the annual cost of MPs’ salaries will amount to UAH 220 million.
From 2018 to 2020, the salary of an MP working in a committee increased from 17.6 to 21 thousand. But in fact, the salary of an MP is 30-40 thousand UAH due to allowances. Today, on average, MPs receive between 50 and 70 thousand UAH.
Author: Alla Dunina
