BRATISLAVA, December 1, (WEBNOVINY) — Salaries of deputies, Cabinet members, and the president will not grow next year. Parliamentary deputies agreed on this on Thursday when they approved the draft amendment to the law on remuneration of some constitutional representatives with votes of 146 MPs in the 150-member house. Also frozen will be salaries of the chairman and deputy chairmen of the Supreme Audit Office, the prosecutor general, defender of public rights, heads of central bodies of the state administration and state employees in public offices.
Speaker of Parliament Pavol Hrusovsky (KDH) proposed that current deputies who will be reelected in the early elections in March 2012 do not get a new laptop computer and a printer. Only new deputies will get those appliances. Hrusovsky argued that the Parliamentary Office needs to cut spending, and the current election terms is ending early. Wages and expenses for assistants to deputies and their offices will not grow next year, either. The salary freeze will not apply to judges and prosecutors.
The draft’s submitters reasoned not trying to freeze salaries of judges and prosecutors whose salaries are calculated on the basis of salaries of MPs, with a decision of the Constitutional Court which disapproved reducing salaries of the judges in the past.
Salaries of MPs are based on average income in the national economy. The current government adopted a rule that a salary of MPs would be reduced if the state budget generates a deficits and increased if the deficit is reduced. The Finance Ministry estimated that 2012 salaries of the MPs could increase by 652 euros to 4228 euros per month because of the sharp deficit reduction this year.
SITA