CARROT DANGLED BEFORE CABINET

MANZINI – Government is dangling a carrot before Cabinet. The Phil Mnisi-led Royal Commission has recommended that politicians should get an equivalent of 24 months of their salaries if they achieve an economic growth of five per cent during their term in office.

However, should this five per cent target not be realised, it is recommended that the gratuity for politicians be reduced from a year to six months, this publication has reliably learnt.
According to impeccable sources, the upcoming circular, whose report was presented to Cabinet yesterday, will outline among other things that politicians should get a salary for only six months after their term of office has ended – which is half of what members of the 10th Parliament received.

However, such a provision is bound to change should government manage to revive the economy and improve the country’s financial situation.

Package

This, in essence, means that the politicians will receive a bigger package if, by the time their term of office ends, the country would have recovered economically.
The previous Parliament’s politicians received 12 months of their pay as gratuity if they were not re-appointed or re-elected. This tallied up to about E55 million.
This was as per the stipulations of Finance Circular No.2 of 2013.

The figure was inclusive of the 30 members of Senate, 65 Members of Parliament, 55 Constituency headmen and 336 bucopho.
According to Finance Circular No.2 of 2013, the ex-gratia payment is a grant that is payable to former parliamentarians to assist with the costs of adjusting to non-parliamentary life.
The ex-gratia payment is available to all parliamentarians who fail to be re-elected or reappointed into the new Parliament. 

The circular states that in the event that the parliamentarian does not fully serve the five-year-term, the ex-gratia payment will be pro-rated, taking into account the actual period served.
However, following the commissioning of the Royal Commission, its recommendations are that all politicians will get a six-month gratuity at the end of their term, without taking into account if they are re-appointed or re-elected.
Further, Mnisi and team are said to have recommended that Cabinet should be awarded 24 months ex-gratia, only if they achieve the economic growth of five per cent throughout their term.

This recommendation, in essence, means that the politicians should work extremely hard to resuscitate the country’s fiscal standing - for them to take home this perk.
Information attained by this publication is to the effect that their salaries will remain as is, while they will lose some of the perks that were enjoyed by the previous Parliament.

Economy

This could be translated to that the premier, Ambrose Mandvulo Dlamini will get E463 185 as ex-gratia for six months if he and his team miss the target of five per cent growth in the economy. However, if they attain it, he would stand to get E1 852 740. This is because his current salary stands at E77 197.50.
Meanwhile his deputy, Themba Nhlanganiso Masuku, will take home E416 862 as his monthly salary is E69 477 if the target is not achieved; however, if they make it as Cabinet, he will get E1 667 448.

On the other hand, each of the Cabinet ministers is remunerated E61 757.92 and they stand to get E370 547.52 if the target is not met, but should they meet it, they would each get E1 482 190.08.

Also, despite that the 10th Parliaments’ Cabinet enjoyed hefty salaries – even higher than some leaders of States in the Southern African Community (SADC), the taxpayer thanked them with among other things sport utility vehicles (SUVs).
The SUVs were benchmarked at E800 000 while the ex-premier and his ex-deputy were to get new wheels upon exiting office.  There were 23 BMW X5s that were bought and cost the tax-payer E18 400 000.
The new recommendation is that they will not get cars after exiting office.

Meanwhile, this publication has also reliably gathered that the premier will not get a house at the end of his term.
This publication’s credible sources highlighted that the Royal Commission used the submissions gathered from the People’s Parliament (Sibaya) and removed the house and vehicle as a terminal benefit for the prime minister while also removing the vehicles for the DPM and ministers.

The public, during their presentations to the monarch at Sibaya, voiced their disapproval and wondered what was special about the politicians to be paid handsomely and also be bought vehicles.

Disapproved

The public also disapproved of the construction of the then premier’s house, later dubbed lidlokolo; while also wondering what was special with him to get his gratuity, a state-of-the-art house and also a monthly salary equivalent to what he earned while in office.

These perks were awarded to the former politicians at the backdrop of an ailing economy. 
Meanwhile, the Chairperson of the Royal Commission, Mnisi, confirmed that they had submitted to the principal during the first week of the month.

When probed on the recommendations submitted to the principal, Mnisi played his cards close to the chest, as he said: “At the opportune time, we’ll update the public on our recommendations.”

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