REVIEWING POLITICIANS’ SALARIES USING CIRCULARS ILLEGAL – BENNETT

MBABANE – Businessman Walter Bennett has stated the reviewing of politicians’ salaries by way of government circulars is not only wrong but illegal, in particular when it comes to exempting some from taxation. 

Bennett said this was unlawful in the sense that the only person who could call for tax exemption was the minister of Finance.
He said even then, the finance minister has to compile a report for Parliament, especially the House of Assembly, because that has a cost effect on government coffers.

The outspoken businessman said that was why a Member of Parliament could not just move a motion calling for a cut in taxes as that was territory reserved only for the minister of Finance.
He made the statements in a press conference yesterday where he cited a report by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) who had been engaged by the Ministry of Finance to assist with the review and update of some aspects of terms and conditions of service of the political cadre of government.

According to the PwC report, to determine the prime minister’s salary, there needs to be a consistent and defensive manner on which to base salaries.
The notion of linking the parliamentarians’ pay to senior civil servants poses a risk in terms of linking the pay to a single specific reference point.

The report was issued in 2013 wherein it was also recommended that the prime minister’s salary be benchmarked against other similar sized (by GDP) countries in Africa.
“However, the benchmark rate of pay for Swaziland will be discounted to take into account affordability of the government and economic conditions of the country,” reads part of the recommendations carried in the report.
In determining the pay for the rest of the parliamentarians, a sliding scale ratio was to be applied.

Bennett described the issue of politicians’ remuneration as a sensitive one and that if it were a properly functioning procedure, all these controversial monies should be returned.
“We have talked about this many times such that at some point we differed with the present prime minister on how does one justify giving the PM and DPM what they call a capital allowance when they are riding executive cars at the expense of the taxpayer.” He claimed that the PM’s response was that they do not get a car allowance, but a capital allowance, to which he countered to say the question was whatever government wanted to call it, it still remained an allowance. “How do you get that when you are riding a state car? Eventually, in the case of a prime minister, you are entitled to buy it, also at the expense of the taxpayer,” Bennett said.

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