In the Democratic Republic of Congo, the amount of salaries of elected officials is coming back to the forefront. A new controversy after the remarks of the new president of the National Assembly, Vital Kamerhe who assured last week that the deputies earned 14 million Congolese francs, approximately 5,000 dollars. But voices are being raised to protest against this figure.
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The figure given this weekend by Vital Kamerhe is lower than what is provided for in the 2024 finance law in which the overall envelope for the remuneration of elected officials is more than 140 billion Congolese francs, approximately 46.3 million dollars. This gives a salary of more than $8,500 per month per MP, knowing that there are 500 sitting.
And this difference in figures was noted by several civil society organizations, including Congo is not for sale, Lucha and the Public Expenditure Observatory (Odep). For Odep, this question must therefore be clarified. Its president Florimond Muteba believes that “ the emoluments of national deputies are around 9,000 dollars, 11,000 for senators “. But with special fees and bonuses, the salary can even double, he adds.
It is therefore difficult to know the exact remuneration of elected officials. And civil society regularly denounces the existence of a “ Special intervention fund », provided for in the finance law and which institutions sometimes use to increase salaries.
Guest AfricaDRC: how much do Congolese deputies really earn?