MP wants to increase MPs’ payments
28 June 2024 17:10
Galina Tretyakova, head of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Social Policy, has proposed a significant increase in the monthly salary of MPs’ assistants. The relevant resolution No. 11384 has been registered in the Verkhovna Rada, reports "Komersant Ukrainian"
Currently, the monthly salary fund for each MP’s assistants is 29.2 times the subsistence minimum set for able-bodied persons as of 1 January of the calendar year, i.e. UAH 88,417.6.
Tretiakova believes that this amount is too small and it
“leads to a loss of sustainability of the system of support for the legislative process and complicates the retention of professional staff by MPs of Ukraine”.
The MP wrote this in an explanatory note to the draft resolution.
Tretiakova proposes to raise the payments for assistants to 43.8 times the subsistence level for able-bodied persons, i.e. to UAH 132,626.4.
Currently, there are 401 MPs in the Verkhovna Rada. Thus, Tretyakova’s initiative could increase payments for assistants by up to UAH 17.7 million per month, provided that all MPs exercise their right to have state-paid assistants and raise the maximum funds for this purpose. Most MPs do so.
However, the MP did not take this figure for the increase from her head. She calculated it from the fact that the 2024 budget was calculated for a larger number of MPs.
“When drafting the State Budget of Ukraine for 2024, the salary fund for MPs and their assistants was calculated based on the number of 423 people. The actual number of people’s deputies of Ukraine is 401,”
– reads the explanatory note.
MPs are also currently working without paid holidays.
Therefore, the MP argues that her proposed increase in MPs’ allowances does not require additional expenditures from the state budget.
Tretyakova also explained her position on Facebook. According to her, these unused funds are not saved at all, as the Verkhovna Rada apparatus distributes them at its discretion and mainly to the income of its own management. Therefore, Tretyakova proposes to fight “oligarchs in the civil service” in this way.
The MP is referring to the information that has recently received a public outcry about the very high salaries of the leadership of the Verkhovna Rada’s staff. During the 2 years of the full-scale war, the Chief of Staff of the Verkhovna Rada, Shtukhnyi, earned almost UAH 6 million.
“…the salaries of the VRU civil servants are at one of the highest levels in the country and almost twice as high as in the Office of the President or any ministry… The resolution only redistributes funds from the “oligarchs” in the civil service in favour of people who work in the patronage service and are not protected,”
– says the MP.
It is worth noting that each MP can have up to 31 consultant assistants. These assistants can work under fixed-term employment contracts on a permanent basis, on a part-time basis or on a voluntary basis. Those who work on a permanent basis may be attached to the Secretariat of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine for personnel and financial services.
Today, MPs have 4,322 assistants, of whom 1,004 are paid, while the rest work on a voluntary basis.
