By Yusef Taylor, @FlexDan_YT
Gambian National Assembly members of the Sixth Legislature have proposed an increase of almost D9 million in Basic Salaries for 2023. National Assembly members commenced the debate of the 2023 Draft Budget yesterday 24th November 2022.
According to a document released yesterday, showing the proposed increase of Basic Salaries and Allowance of National Assembly Members for 2023, all members’ Basic Salary is proposed to increase by 30% while the Speaker’s Basic Salary is proposed to increase by over 136%.
Hon Fatoumatta Njai of Banjul South who sits on Parliament’s Standing Committee on Finance and Public Accounts delivered a passionate speech on the reason Parliament should not increase its salary at such an economically challenging time for the country.
It can be recalled that the Government increased the salary of all Civil Servants by 30% via the revised Budget in late July 2022. However, since the National Assembly obtained Autonomy and was excluded from the 30% salary increase, the National Assembly Service has proposed increasing their salaries by D8,869,962.
The Speaker’s Basic Salary was D658,534.00 in 2022 for the whole year according to the 2022 Approved Budget. The proposal from the National Assembly Service aims to increase the Speaker’s Basic Salary by D901,466.00 which is almost 137% of the Speaker’s Basic Salary in 2022.
The other National Assembly members Basic Salary increase proposal is 30%. The chart below shows all the salary increases for the Speaker, Deputy Speaker, Majority Leader, Minority Leader and the remaining 54 Parliamentarians.
It must be noted that this is just the Basic Salary of Parliamentarians and that National Assembly members are also provided Responsibility, Residential, Robbing, Telephone and many other Allowances totalling over D73 million.
Our next publication will delve into the proposed allowance increases. Parliamentarians are set to approve the 2023 Budget on Monday 28th November 2022. After the 2023 Budget is approved Gambia Parliamentary Newsletter will review if the proposed increases have been approved.
