BGN 3,720 – a salary of this amount was voted by the Municipal Council of Krushari for Ilhan Mustejeb, mayor of the smallest and poorest municipality in Dobrich district. The remuneration, which is higher than the remunerations of many managers in Bulgarian municipalities, was approved before the adoption of the budget for this year.
What are the merits of the mayor for this increase?
According to the latest data of the National Statistics at the end of 2019, 3797 people live in the municipality. The municipality is the smallest in Dobrich district with 19 villages and no towns. At the end of January, the unemployment rate was 15.5%, compared to the district average of 6.1%.
Mayor Ilhan Mustejeb commented to “NOVA” that last year his salary was BGN 3,100, and his deputies received up to BGN 2,800.
„I’m supposed to be adequate, right? I make the decision, I answer, I have probably signed 100-200 documents since this morning. I am responsible for every penny. I think that’s reciprocal to the salary I get.“
According to information from the Institute for Market Economy, 1 municipal employee in the municipality serves 81 people. In most municipalities in our country, the range is between 100 and 300 people. Krushari is not the only municipality in our country that does not meet the criterion for a minimum population of 6,000 inhabitants. What makes it unique, however, is the high remuneration of the mayor, which was recently voted by the Municipal Council with 9 votes „for“, 3 „against“ and 1 „abstained“.
Some of the councilors are against the increase of 45 percent in just a year and three months are some of the councilors. GERB municipal councilor Radoslav Yordanov believes that such an increase in the mayor’s salary is unacceptable in the conditions of the COVID pandemic, global crisis and at these levels of unemployment in Bulgaria.
The municipal councilor from BSP Zdravko Zdravkov pointed out that he would be happy to vote for BGN 10,000 for a hard-working mayor, but the municipality of Krushari collects about BGN 500 of patent tax per year, and there is no industry.
„Agriculture can provide jobs only during campaigns.“, Zdravkov said, adding that due to the drought in 2020, most people were left without this livelihood.
There is no emergency aid in the municipality, and ambulances from the regional town travel for an hour in only one direction to the most remote villages on the border with Romania, Zdravkov added. According to him, general practitioners serve the population for only 2-3 hours a day.
