MPs IN ‘HUSH HUSH’ MEET WITH PM FOR BETTER PAY

MBABANE – Although they benefitted from the civil servants’ ‘dvuladvula’ (salary review), parliamentarians still want more perks.

This is according to a leaked proposal document which the Parliament Joint House Committee (JHC) has forwarded to the office of the Prime Minister Sibusiso Barnabas Dlamini, where they seek a review of Finance Circular No.2 of 2013.

About two weeks ago, the JHC had a private meeting with the PM in the House of Assembly, which was in the form of a caucus.
Among the other things that the JHC, which is chaired by Senator Prince Fipha wants, is that the medical aid afforded to parliamentarians should continue for 12 months after the legislator has vacated office at the end of the term.

Currently, the circular gives full medical aid cover for the legislator’s spouse or dependants which would, however, end once the member vacated office.
According to the letter, the JHC had long wanted a meeting with the PM to raise concerns over the circular, with the matter dating back to July 13, 2016. However, the JHC could not meet with the PM due to his busy schedule and the committee found it appropriate to send the chairman and a subcommittee to visit His Excellency in Cabinet and discuss the issues of Finance Circular No.2 of 2013.

Among other issues, according to the JHC, was that there was an urgent need to review salaries for politicians.
They stated that paragraph 4, under the heading, ‘Standard Benefits and allowances for Parliamentarians’ of Finance Circular No.2 of 2013, state that the review of salaries ought to happen every two years.

The circular, however, reads that the basic salary of the PM would be benchmarked against similar sized (by GDP) SADC countries every two years and discounted for the economic conditions and affordability of the Swazi Government, and goes on to state that annual review salaries will be applied based on civil service annual review rates.

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