The salaries of MPs are almost twice as high as at the beginning of their term, according to a study by the Open Parliament. According to the rules adopted by the parliament, the salaries of the deputies must be 3 times higher than the gross average salary in the public sector for the last month of the previous quarter, and the recalculation is done automatically. For example, at the beginning of this year they took BGN 4,248 each, after in December 2019 the officials received an average of BGN 1,416.
Additional funds are distributed to the deputies through the so-called two thirds for representation expenses (which amount to about BGN 2,800 per month). Their participation in the specialized committees in the parliament is also paid.
The Open Parliament reports that 2019 is the third year of the parliamentary career of the representatives in the 44th National Assembly. Their team reviewed whether they complied with their obligation to file declarations under the Anti-Corruption and Confiscation of Illegally Acquired Property Act, which are published in the electronic register of the Commission for Combating Corruption and Confiscation of Illegally Acquired Property (CCAC). In addition, they compared how the financial situation of the people’s deputies had changed after they published data about him at the beginning of their term of office at the time of their inauguration.
For the data
This year, all MPs have submitted declarations, with five of them doing so late. In the sample of property declaration, there is a separate column „Cash available“. It is assumed that these are the funds they have in cash, as it is separated from „Bank deposits / deposits /“.
A total of 147 (110 men and 37 women) MPs have declared available funds, amounting to BGN 10,448,748. The Open Parliament notes that the total amount does not include the funds of the spouses, who are listed as only theirs, and amount to another BGN 1,924,039. GERBA MP Desislava Todorova declared the most cash for her partner – BGN 404 thousand. of her husband Hristo Todorov, who was part of those who broke away from Barekov’s parliamentary group and moved to that of Kovachki’s Bulgarian Democratic Center in the 43rd National Assembly.
Thus, there is a significant increase in cash available compared to the BGN 6,398,148 announced at the beginning of the mandate, and now there are more of their holders – in 2017 they were 107 deputies.
With the most cash among the individual parliamentary groups are as follows:
Boris Kardzhev from GERB – declared BGN 1,670,000 in savings and salary; Delyan Peevski from MRF – with BGN 522,000 from dividends and income from sale of shares; Alexander Sabanov from the group of the United Patriots – with BGN 409,352 from salary and rent; Georgi Mihailov from BSP – with BGN 357,405 from savings and Plamen Hristov from Volya – declared BGN 77,149 from salaries, savings and additional income from participation in parliamentary committees.
The deputies who have indicated cash in the amount of over BGN 100,000 are a total of 21. For comparison, at the beginning of their term in 2017 they were 13.
From the form of the completed declarations and the information in them it is not clear what exactly is included in the column „Cash“ – whether it is actually cash, such on current accounts (card and / or cardless), deposited in vaults / safes or otherwise stored. In view of this, according to the Open Parliament team, it would be appropriate in this part to specify the form of the property declarations of the MPs in order to include a specific definition of the respective category of funds.
