THE GOVERNMENT has given massive bonuses to 48 top state and judicial officials, on average tripling expense accounts to make their overall earnings more in line with those of a modern competitive economy.
According to yesterday’s Politis, the 48 officials will get an extra €200,000 to €300,000 a year starting from 2009, added to their top-bracket salaries, already hovering above the €100,000 mark.
The paper notes that the controversial increases will be used to calculate pension benefits, something which civil servants’ union PASYDY acknowledges is not the standard practice.
The top positions to benefit from the expense account increases include one from the Presidential Palace, 12 from cabinet (permanent secretaries), two from Parliament, 14 judges of the Supreme Court, 13 presidents of the District Courts, two from the Legal Services, one from the Auditor-General’s Office, one from the Ombudswoman’s Office, one from Police HQ, and one position in the Foreign Ministry.
On average, the expense accounts of the 48 top officials will see a 193 per cent increase, counting for €563,053 in total increases. The greatest actual increase goes to Supreme Court judges, who will see a rise in their expense account from €86,114 in 2008 to €252,000 in 2009.
The greatest proportional increase was given to the two positions in Parliament, that saw a €20,049 rise in expense benefits, translating to a 326 per cent increase.
Politis criticised the government for its lack of transparency and alleged hypocrisy, given that it claims to support the fair distribution of the national wealth “while giving crumbs to those in need, and sponge cake to well-paid officials”.
Finance Minister Charilaos Stavrakis told the paper that the decision was taken following a long-standing and rational request to increase the expense accounts for those officials.
Former ministers and state officials supported the move arguing that high-level officials like permanent secretaries were not paid greatly when compared to their subordinates or similar positions in the private sector.
Permanent secretaries, for example, don’t write their overtime hours down like their subordinates do and are known to work late during the week and at the weekends, unlike their subordinates.
The increase in benefits is seen as an indirect way to increase salaries. However, given that expenses will be used to calculate pension benefits, the move will increase the one-off payment on retirement by around €40,000 and the monthly pension by about €750.
The paper asked PASYDY head Glafcos Hadjipetrou about calculating the expense account into the pension, who noted that the overtime hours of civil servants, for example, were not included when calculating their pension benefits.
