'Forgetfulness' Blamed for Salary Hike of Bulgarian Politicians

Senior Bulgarian officials such as ministers and members of the Parliament have received a pay raise at the end of January despite an earlier decision of the government to freeze these salaries.

The increase of between BGN 252 and BGN 504 a moth has been explained with the MPs "forgetting to vote on the wage freeze."

MP's salaries were BGN 2 196 a month until the end of January, and now are BGN 2 448.

President, Rosen Plevneliev, currently makes BGN 4 896, compared to 4 392 in 2012. The salaries of Prime Minister, Boyko Borisov and the Speaker of the Parliament, Tsetska Tsacheva, went up by BGN 400 and are now BGN 3 794 a month.

The salaries of ministers were increased to BGN 3 172 a month.

The Deputy Chair of the Parliamentary Group of the ruling Citizens for European Development in Bulgaria party, GERB, Dimitar Glavchev, explained the MPs did not vote on the freeze over the long break around the winter holidays and many other important Bills that had to be passed.

Glavchev says the Parliament "still might vote on the freeze."

Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister, Simeon Djankov, voiced surprise and said he learned about the salary increase from the media.

"This is wrong. We should increase other incomes before upping ours. I will deal with this ASAP, this week," he pledged.

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