Galery

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The Greek deputies receive more than 20,000 euro a month,  reads Ethnos newspaper in today's issue. The people’s representatives' compensations do not fall for the first time under the magnifying glass of the media, but this time the sum exceeds even the boldest expectations.

In fact, the disclosure is not the result of a journalistic investigation, but comes from the efforts of the examining judges to get information about the exact sum, which is received every month by the members of the Greek Parliament. The inquest started after judges and prosecutors had submitted complaints with the request to annul the cuts in their remuneration. Then, the competent court sent a letter to the Secretary of Parliament with the inquiry for detailed information about the sum received monthly by the deputies, in order to determine the salaries of the court workers on its basis. And this, because, according to the Constitution, "The deputies have the right to receive remuneration, equal to the total sum of all remunerations of the court workers".

The inquiry had been sent already in March, but to date the court still has not received an answer. Probably the reason for the silence of the Parliament is the difficulty in explaining that the total of "all remunerations" for each deputy exceeds the sum of 20,000 euro per month, or 700 euro per day.

According to the Parliament's budget, the deputy's salary amounts to 8,000 euro. The people’s representatives receive additionally on average about 1,100 euro per month for taking part in commissions, as the total expenses for attending the meetings are 2,875,000 euro. This sum, however, is not a constant number, because the deputies, who take part in the financial commission, for example, receive more money than the others, due to the more frequent meetings.

For taking part in each meeting of the commission, in which each deputy is a member, they receive 150 euro. As much again receive the participants in the summer sessions of the Parliamentary Plenum. In total, for the commissions and for the summer sessions, the deputies receive 1,250 euro per month.

Even more:

- According to the parliamentary budget for 2012, the total amount for insurances of the deputies in the National Health Insurance Fund and the family allowance amounts to 1,062,000, or 350 euro per deputy.

- About 1,000 euro per month is the cost to the state of the deputies' official cars. After the enclosure of the decision to replace them with other ones, of lesser horsepower and respectively the price of the leasing fell, the Athens deputies' cars with a 1.4 l engine cost to the budget 750 euro each per month. For deputies outside the capital city, are foreseen cars with 1.8 l engines, the expenses for which reach 1,200 euro per month.

- The budget foresees also expenses for transportation amounting to 1,705,000 euro per year, or 473 euro a month per deputy.

- In total, for "expenses, related to the organization of an office", 8,146,900 euro are foreseen. This means that each deputy will receive monthly 2,263 euro. This sum includes also the 1,000 euro, which are granted to the people's representatives for postal expenses.

- The rent allowance, which the deputies from the province receive, is about 1,000 euro per month. Most of them, however, stay in central hotels, which have contracts with the Parliament.

- For their telephone expenses, each deputy receives about 11,800 euro per year, or 983 euro per month. This sum is for the conversations from a non-mobile phone. For the mobiles, they receive an additional 200 euro per month.

The sum of all extras is 20,479 euro, as the Athens deputies receive about 2,000 euro less, because for them, the rent allowances and the extras for plane tickets, which their colleagues from the province get, are not foreseen. Here one should note that the deputies have the right to continue to exercise their profession even after they are elected as members of the Parliament, and to earn money from it.

At the same time, the sum of 12,000 euro, which the deputies receive in addition to their main salary of 8,000 euro in the form of extras, cannot be reached by any means from the compensations for overtime or business trips, received by some judges and prosecutors.

Thus, for now the Parliament is keeping the request of the judges in the drawer and prefers not to respond, at least until they find a way to justify the sums, received by the deputies. It is interesting whether a decrease will follow in their privileges, as Prime Minister Antonis Samaras promised in the discussion before the vote of confidence to the government.