2024-03-22 18:21:27
The remunerations of the councilors who are on the Supervisory Boards of the municipal specialized bodies in Sofia are suspended. This report was submitted by the head of SOS Tsvetomir Petrov and municipal councilors Boris Bonev and Boyko Dimitrov from the PP-DB-SS group.
The amendment enjoys the support of other political groups in the city parliament. This will be done by changing the Regulations for the organization and operation of the Specialized Municipal Privatization Fund, the Regulations for the activities of the Capital Municipal Privatization Agency and the Regulations for the organization and activities of the Municipal Guarantee Fund for Small and Medium Enterprises of the Capital Municipality.
The reasons are that the members of the councils receive remuneration at the expense of the CO’s budget, based on the Plan-Account approved by the budget of the Metropolitan Municipality for the calendar year. So far, out of all 61 municipal councilors, 31 have received additional pay as members of the supervisory bodies, which amounted – from 2015 to 2019 to BGN 134,000 per month, and from 2019 to BGN 95,000 per month.
The members of the municipal council receive remuneration on the basis of Art. 34, para. 1 of the ZMSMA and it cannot be more than 70 percent of the gross salary of the chairman of the municipal council for the relevant month, as the municipal councilors receive salaries for their participation in the meetings of the SOS and its committees.
The current provisions in the regulations of the municipal specialized bodies, the cancellation of which is proposed, provide for the payment of remuneration to the municipal councilors beyond the provisions of this provision. In addition, the petitioners believe that it is wrong to receive remuneration from non-working bodies with an expired mandate (from the city of October 2023) on a monthly basis and until now, and a large part of the persons to whom it is paid and at the moment are not included in the composition of the elected for the 2023-2027 term.
At the upcoming meeting of the Metropolitan Municipal Council, at the proposal of almost all political groups in the city parliament, an update will be made of the salaries of the mayor of the city council, the municipal councilors, the regional mayors. The reason is that they have not been changed for 10 years, and this is a period in which a significant increase in the prices of goods and services has been reported.
In addition, the mayors and municipal councilors of many smaller settlements receive higher remuneration than the capital, even though Sofia is responsible for a budget of BGN 2.5 billion.
It should be noted that since taking office, the mayor of Sofia, Vasil Terziev, donates his salary every month and gives a report on what causes the funds he receives for his work go to.