The Campaign for Human Rights and Development International (CHRDI), a civil society organisation, has urged the government, citizens and other civil society organisations to stop the current proposal in the Sierra Leone Parliament to increase the salaries of the Members of Parliament.
The Bill, “Parliamentary Welfare Act 2022”, suggests that each member of parliament receives US$25,000 for vehicle each term and US$15,000 as medical allowance each year.
The Bill recommends that the salary of the Speaker of Parliament and other condition of service should be the same as that of the vice president, and those of the deputy speaker shall be at per with condition of service of the chief justice.
But the Office of the Clerk said in statement Wednesday that the bill, being a private member’s bill has not been presented to Parliament for consideration. “As such, neither the office of Speaker nor the clerk is aware of its existence. Even though it is the right of individual Members of Parliament to prepare and pilot private member’s bills as provided for in Standing Order 61, Parliament wishes the general public to note that it has nothing to do with the above-mentioned bill,” the Office of the Clerk said in a statement.
“The law provides that for a private member’s bill to be recognized by the House, it must fulfill certain conditions, including Gazetting the document and formally serving the office of the Clerk. As at the time of this press release, the bill in question has not met that said conditions and hence, not before Parliament. Parliament therefore wishes to disassociate itself from the bill and to inform the general public accordingly.”
CHRDI said in a statement on Tuesday that, the attempt to increase MPs’ salaries, including benefits such as wardrobe allowances, demonstrates that our legislature is tone deaf to the continued suffering of the people of Sierra Leone.
“The people have, for years now, suffered the harsh economic and social impacts of the global pandemic, coupled with multiple failures by the government to deliver on the promises they made four years ago. So, at a time when families in our country have to tighten their belts even more than before, it is preposterous for the Parliamentarians to ask that their salaries and benefits be increased,” CHRDI said in the statement.
CHRDI believes that a strong representative democracy needs an open and transparent government, and that Politicians should represent their communities and protect the public interest, and not their private interest.
“This Bill to increase salaries and benefits is the definition of the lack of respect and honesty to the voters. Before increasing their salaries, have these politicians asked themselves what they have done to improve the lives of the people they represent?”
CHRDI said, “At a time when the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic is having a significant impact on the country’s medium-term growth prospects, and citizens are battling with severe hardships, parliamentarians are now telling us that their top priority is to fatten up their wallets.”
Sierra Leoneans are faced with crushing difficulty in paying rents and many families with children are at risk, or already face eviction. In late 2018, this very Parliament made same attempt to push this unreasonable request for increased salaries and benefits for themselves, but the people of Sierra Leone rejected it.
“We see this disgraceful bill as a total disregard to the majority of Sierra Leoneans’ will to build a better economy after a decade of alleged plunder by many of the same politicians who seek better pay now, and we wish to reiterate our avowed stance against rewarding incompetence and failed promises,” the statement reads.
CHRDI therefore, called on Parliamentarians to withdraw their proposal with immediate effect in the public interest.
CHRDI is a Rights based public social-policy advocacy Organisation. It draws attention to the responsibility of duty bearers to uphold human rights and seek to support rights-holders to claim their rights.
By Sallieu S. Kanu