Statute for Parliamentary Officials and Agents will cost 104 million meticais… but implementation depends on budgetary availability – Carta

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Statute for Parliamentary Officials and Agents will cost 104 million meticais… but implementation depends on budgetary availability – Carta

7:26 CAT | 10 May 2021

File photo: DW

Without passing any value judgment on the draft statute for parliamentary officials and agents approved unanimously by all three parliamentary benches (Frelimo Renamo and MDM) on Tuesday, Minister of Economy and Finance Adriano Maleiane has now given an indication as to how much the controversial bill will cost the public purse.

Dated 4 May, a note from Maleiane sent to parliament stating that approval and implementation of the statute, detailing new rights and benefits including subsidies for sessions, holidays, food allowance, clothing allowance [‘atavio’], seniority, and protocolar and basic ‘baskets’, and whose implementation is dependent on budget availability, will entail additional costs of 104 million meticais.

Parliament on Wednesday approved by consensus the Statute for Parliamentary Officials and Agents, which introduces careers for its employees and a clothing allowance for those who work in “formal and protocolar environments”.

The proposal creates the following careers for officials and agents of the Assembly of the Republic: Parliamentary specialist, legislative technician, legislative technician N1, parliamentary technician, parliamentary technician N1, legislative technician N2, parliamentary technician N2, professional legislative technician and professional parliamentary technician.
The document introduces the clothing [‘atavio’] allowance for officials and parliamentary agents “exposed to solemn and protocolar environments” to be defined by the Standing Commission of the Assembly of the Republic.

This amount will be added to the session, vacation, food, seniority and protocol allowances, which were already paid before Wednesday’s approval of the statute. The Law on the Statute for Parliamentary Officials and Agents also assigns diplomatic passports to those who exercise management, leadership and trust functions.

The diploma gives the benches the freedom to choose, among the employees and agents, the support staff in the exercise of the activities of the parliamentary group. In the reasoning for the statute, parliament emphasises that the organisation and functioning of the parliament obeys formalities and dynamics which are particular and distinct from the generality of sovereign bodies.

“The specific nature of parliamentary activity requires that the parliamentary officials and agents exercise their activity in providing technical, scientific, legal, legislative and administrative support to deputies and the organs of the Assembly of the Republic under conditions very different from other state officials and agents,” the bill reads.
It is also noted that any matter not dealt with in the statute is regulated by the General Statute of State Officials and Agents (EGFAE). The debate and vote on the bill will be held on May 12, Wednesday.

Source: Carta de Moçambique