Monrovia – Members of the Senate are debating a decision considered “unprecedented” by many critics on reducing their current benefits by 21 or 25 percent.
Because of the importance of this decision, the Senate and the House of Representatives have extended their extraordinary sitting by one week.
According to one senator, who spoke on the basis of anonymity, senators are closing in on whether they should agree on the proposal but haven’t reached any decision.
Our source, who is also a member of the Senate, further disclosed that their one week delay is also intended to harmonize the incentives and benefits of the Chief Justice and members of the Judiciary.
“We have extended one more week in this extra sitting because we are harmonizing the incentives of the Chief justice and members of the Judiciary. Though we haven’t reached a conclusion, we are nearing a conclusion on whether we should reduce our benefits by 21 or 25 percent,” the source said.
On Tuesday, September 24, Montserrado County Senator Abraham Darius Dillon disclosed that the accumulated monthly benefit for a senator is US$15,325, which reduces to US$12k after-tax deduction. He also said L$29k is the monthly salary for each senator.
If the above benefit figure is anything to go by, 21 percent of it will be US$3,218.25 or 25 percent of it will be US$3,831.25.
Depending on what percentage the senators agree upon to reduce the benefit by, either of the above figures will be subtracted from their present US$15,325 benefits.
Meanwhile, members of the House of Representatives met on Sunday, September 29, in a special session and had an extensive discussion about what many critics see as an unprecedented decision to slash their salaries and benefits in the 2019/2020 national budget.
According to reports, members of the House of Representatives are now poised to reduce their salary to an amount between US$5,200 and US$5,800.
At the same time, the Speaker and Deputy Speaker will also see their salaries and benefits cut by 60 and 65 percent respectively.
The move is a recommendation from the IMF and it comes amid growing public criticism about lawmakers taking home hefty salaries while public servants including teachers and nurses struggle to cope.
Isaac Redd, Director of Press at the House of Representatives, confirmed to FPA on Sunday evening that the lawmakers have been holding sessions to discuss how the salary harmonization affects them as well as the passage of the draft national fiscal budget.
He said lawmakers should end their session on October 30 but may extend to Friday, October 4 because the Constitution allows for an extension of five days but not more.
Redd couldn’t confirm if the top two issues are on the lawmakers’ agenda but said it was possible that discussion over salary cuts was one of them.
