MPs to get $2000 a month?

The Clerk of Parliament told a media briefing this week that legislators’ salaries would remain a secret – but could be up to $2,000 a month.

“I have no powers to divulge salary details,” Austin Zvoma told journalists who were trying to pressure him to reveal the figure, saying it was the right of tax payers to know what their money was paying to representatives in Parliament.

Treasury is expected to foot a salary bill of over $710,000 per month for the new 355 member Parliament. There will be an additional bill for sitting, travel and subsistence allowances and hotel accommodation expenses among others. Each MP is paid $75 per sitting, while travel allowances are determined by distances.

Treasury owes members of the expired 7th Parliament some $750,000 in unpaid allowances. Zvoma said the bloated house, designed to accommodate 160 people, had further strained already insufficient space and some legislators would have to follow proceedings from the gallery or corridors.

The number of seats ballooned following introduction of 60 especially for women. Five ministers plus the Attorney General are appointed to Parliament by the President.

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