House of Reps` salaries raised to 4.3m/-

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Tanzania | Published On: Thu, Dec 29th, 2011

The State Minister in the second Vice President, Mr Mohamed Aboud Mohamed
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Members of the House of Representatives have had their allowances and salaries raised to 4.3m/- effective from October, this year, it has been learnt.

Before allowance increment that started in October, the Representatives were receiving a salary and some allowances that made them earn 3.3m/- a month.
The minimum salary in Zanzibarfor government employees stands at 125,000/- a month.

The 1m/- increment comes almost concurrently with the increment of allowances of the Members of the Union Parliament from 70,000/- to 200,000/- causing big uproars from members of the public.

In July, this year, Members of the House of Representatives threatened not to endorse the Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs' budget pressing the government to include their benefits' increment.

State Minister in the Second Vice President's Office Mohammed Aboud Mohammed confirmed the increment of the Representatives' salaries by 200 per cent.

He argued that the increment would enable them to cope with the high cost of living and give them the morale to work under the government of national unity.
He said the increment happened at the time salaries and benefits of civil servants in Zanzibar had been generally scaled up to enable them to manage their lives.

Aboud said a salary scale for Members of the House of Representatives was too small compared to that of their counterparts in the East African region.

"Representatives receive lower salaries compared to the tasks they are entrusted with in their respective constituencies. That is why the government has made these changes," said the minister.

He noted that the representatives spent a large portion of their salaries and allowances on solving the problems facing their voters in their areas.

House of Representatives secretary Ibrahim Mzee Ibrahim could not be reached for comment as his mobile phone was switched off.

However, Zanzibar Trade Unions Confederation (Zatuc) secretary general Mohammed Mwinyi Khamis said the increment was too high compared to the minimum salary of civil servants.

He said it was not wise for the Representatives to have their salaries raised by 200 per cent, while those receiving the minimum salary had a 25-per cent increment only.

He said following the biting cost of living, they had proposed the minimum salary be fixed at 234,000/- for civil servants and 174,000/- for those employed in the private sector.

He noted that workers in the private sector had continued receiving the minimum salary of 70,000/-, while the civil servants' minimum salary was 125,000/-.

"The proposals we have made come from a survey, which took into consideration what is taking place in the country, particularly inflation," the secretary general said.

The huge salary difference also attracted criticisms from lawyers, whereby in the judiciary magistrates had seen their salaries going up sharply in contrast to the prosecutors' even though credentials for the two professions were the same.

While a district magistrate took home a 2.3m/- salary, a public prosecutor had 548,000/- a month.
By Mwinyi Sadallah, The Guardian