MPs are sensitive when it comes to their salaries, and they are not comfortable saying whether they have hired advisors. The way was opened for them in July when the Administrative Committee determined that parliamentary clubs could receive as much as 140 thousand euros for hiring club secretaries and expert consultants. This is almost five times more than before, when all clubs had a total of 30 thousand euros for this.
Most of the MPs questioned by Televizija Vijesti excused themselves by saying they were busy, and there were also those who did not want to be, as they say, "grilled." Those who agreed to speak said that their clubs did not hire advisors or did so only partially.
"URA is not using these funds at this time. We are a party that, during discussions on electoral reform, has never asked for additional funds for the functioning of political parties," said party MP Miloš Konatar.
"Our position was that we would hire only a few of these advisors, at the level of three to five, and in no case all that is due to us, which is 17 in total," says DPS MP Mihailo Anđušić.
The ruling parties are not averse to hiring advisors either. SNP MP Bogdan Božović, while expressing displeasure over the media's coverage of the parliamentary standard, replied in passing that he has had an advisor for a month and a half. Deputy Speaker of the Assembly from the Albanian Forum Nikola Camaj says that this is desirable.
"We have a man who works there, who is paid... I think it's a good thing, whatever. It's a practice all over the world that MPs and MP caucuses and the MP himself have an advisor, help," said Camaj.
And for advisors, theoretically, MPs have almost 1,7 million euros available annually. Thirty thousand per month belongs to all clubs, and the remaining 110 thousand is divided proportionally to the number of MPs. The DPS believes that it is not rational for every MP to have an advisor.
"If we had other spatial and other capacities and a level of parliamentarism on a higher scale compared to what citizens see here and in terms of the quality of the political offer and everything else, I would say that I might consider that proposal," says Andjušić.
"Not everything has to be politics, I think that sometimes the source needs to be from a profession. We in politics often do not belong to a specific profession, so we need people," Camaj believes.
It is known that Camaj, as the Deputy Speaker of the Parliament, is advised by lawyer Marjan Ljuljđuraj, who costs citizens around 15 thousand euros annually. And how much the MPs' advisors cost us in total, or how much the parliamentary clubs have hired them, will become clearer in January, when the first semi-annual report is published on the Parliament's website.
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