ONLY INDEPENDENT TEAM CAN REVIEW MPS’ PAY

MBABANE – Members of Parliament (MPs) may have approached Prime Minister Sibusiso Barnabas Dlamini seeking to engage him on having their salaries reviewed but they seem to have forgotten one thing – only an Independent Commission appointed by His Majesty the King can review their remuneration.

The current legislators are remunerated through Circular No.2 of 2013, which is a document that spells out the terms and conditions of service for Swaziland politicians.
It is clearly spelled out in the Circular that it ‘shall at minimum be reviewed every five years from the effective date by the established independent commission as appointed by His Majesty the King’.

The effective date of the Circular is the date of appointment of the prime minister; deputy prime minister; cabinet ministers and regional administrators; and the date of swearing in of members of parliament and members of senate.
Members of Parliament and Senators were sworn into office in November 2013 and, according to the Circular, this is the date the policy came into effect.

This means the Circular can only be reviewed in November 2018 (minimum five years from the effective date), and, by that time, the present legislators’ term of office would already have lapsed.
Principal Secretary (PS) in the Ministry of Finance Bheki Bhembe said it would indeed be viewed as ‘irregular’ if the MPs’ salaries were to be reviewed by any body other than the Independent Commission.

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