The huge scam that is the personal staff of MPs and Ministers!

The personal staff of MPs amount to about 5 people with total income of about Rs200,000 a month and on top after 5 years there is a type of gratuity due them in lieu of pensions etc. as their service is NOT permanent like Govt. Servants.

In addition Ministers have another 10 position or thereabouts at their disposal at a cost of over Rs500,000 a month and some of these positions have expensive SUV as part of the fleet and petrol and the use of drivers from Ministry pools and this is in ADDITION to the Ministers own perquisites of pay, and allowances and vehicles.

Conniving ministers don’t even distribute these amongst those who have helped to put them there, but are even purloining some these benefits for themselves, which shows how greedy they have become. Many of these entitlements are from October 2015 so current appointments have a backdated amount coming to them that can add up to quite a bit.

The Media or the General Public are not told of all these, who are in these positions, as many who are in name only don’t actually get the money. Sometimes they may get the funds into their bank accounts, but they are supposed to hand over the money, so whoever the minster designates should get the money are actually given it. It may be an unnamed mistress, or a hangers-on which the people don’t know anything about. The official names are of different people, and they may even get an ID card with their status, or driver or media secretary or such like!

Most ministers don’t want their constituents to know who is on their lists receiving all this largesse, as there may be many who are appalled at the choices of people in these roles, usually rogues from the previous governments called into teach the Minister how to steal in the same way he did in the past. Whilst I may sound cynical, this is in fact how it is done.

There is NO transparency at all, and I trust the RTI will expose all these, so elected representatives have a duty to their constituencies to disclose, who actually gets what is dished out by the state for positions. It is important that this information is open for scrutiny, as otherwise there is sometimes inaccurate speculation on this information, as no minister actually divulges who is getting what.

The simple rule on RTI must be to disclose, as long as it does not compromise National Interest how EVERY PENNY OF STATE FUNDS ARE SPENT!!! That is the only way we can hold our elected representatives accountable.