MPS WANT E100 000 ADVANCE EACH FROM GOVT

MBABANE – Members of Parliament (MPs) want the Ministry of Finance to advance them a maximum of E100 000 each, ahead of the national elections.

The advances, they proposed, should be made against their gratuity or ex-gratia payment, which is due upon completion of their term in office.
A gratuity is a lump sum amount that is paid to an employee by an employer, as a token of appreciation, on the termination of the employee’s services.
Information that reached this publication was that the conversation to have the advances against their gratuity started on the MPs’ WhatsApp group, where a consensus was reached that they should have the money.

Anticipation

This was in anticipation that Parliament may be dissolved anytime soon and that would mean they would no longer be beneficiaries of either the constituency or sitting allowances, with only the basic salary, yet some of them were still servicing loans and other monetary commitments.
The contract of the MPs depicts that once Parliament is dissolved, they no longer benefit from constituency or sitting allowances but only the basic salary. According to the circular, a sitting allowance shall be paid to Members of Parliament, tindvuna tetinkhundla and bucopoho betinkhundla and each sitting is E350.

Entitled

The circular also depicts that all parliamentarians will be entitled to a constituency allowance. The allowance will be equal to 12.5 per cent of the basic pay of the MP, payable per month. According to a legislator, who spoke on condition of anonymity, the request to the ministry was forwarded through the office of the Committee of the House, which is chaired by Siphocosini MP Mduduzi Matsebula. The chairperson confirmed that parliamentarians made the request to the ministry as far as the advances were concerned, but was not sure where the process was as he was out of the country on official parliamentary duties.

Ministry of Finance Spokesperson Setsabile Dlamini confirmed that the parliamentarians had engaged the ministry with the intention of acquiring the advances. She first gave clarity that previously, the MPs could seed against their gratuity in the form of a loan but this time around, the money would be coming straight from government coffers in the form of an advance. She asserted that this was a new policy that was still in the process of being enacted as an official government policy.

“Once the policy has been finalised, the MPs who have applied for the advances will start getting their money, but for now, it is still being processed internally in the ministry,” she said. As far as repaying the advance, Dlamini explained that for MPs who would not be re-elected to Parliament, it would be a difference of the advance from the gratuity that they would be getting, while those who would be re-elected, they would be servicing the advance as a loan and repaying it from their salaries.

In the Eswatini context, the ex-gratia payment is a grant that is payable to former parliamentarians to assist with the costs of adjusting to non-parliamentary life. This is contained in Circular No.2 of 2013, which depicts that the ex-gratia payment is available to all parliamentarians who fail to be re-elected or re-appointed into the new Parliament. “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. Under no circumstances will a part year served be considered as a full year.
“Should the parliamentarian be dismissed or removed from office due to misconduct or incompetence, the ex-gratia payment will be forfeited. The ex-gratia will be paid as once-off payment equal to twelve months (one year) basic salary before taxation for all parliamentarians,” reads the circular.

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