Though the National Assembly did not hold a working session for more than a year during the political deadlock, the Assembly’s Permanent Committee last week agreed to pay parliamentarians partial salaries for that period, a senior Assembly official said.
This month, lawmakers from the previous mandate will receive part of their monthly wages for October and November of 2003, though the amount has not yet been determined, Chan Ven, the Assembly’s deputy secretary-general, said on Sunday.
And though a working Assembly was only established late last month, the 123 new lawmakers, who have yet to receive paychecks for the current term, will be paid retroactively to December 2003, Chan Ven said.
Parliamentarians usually receive nearly $2,000 per month in salaries and expenses. But for the period of the political deadlock, which followed the July 2003 national election, Chan Ven said: “The second and the third term [parliamentarians] will not get full salaries.”
The decision prompted the Sam Rainsy Party to issue a letter protesting the payments.
The opposition party said the parliamentarians should not be paid for the months that the Assembly did no work.
“This decision abuses the Constitution and the law of 2003 fiscal management,” according to the letter dated Wednesday.
Under the Constitution, an Assembly mandate terminates once it is replaced by a newly elected group of lawmakers.
Since the new parliamentarians were sworn into the Assembly on Oct 4 last year, the second-term parliamentarians should not be paid past that date, the letter said.
The Assembly should instead use the money toward the national budget, the Sam Rainsy Party lawmakers said.
“This money should be transferred to the…poor people,” opposition Secretary-General Eng Chhay Eang said Sunday.
Though Chan Ven conceded that the lawmakers did not work during the deadlock, he declined to comment on the reason for the payments.
