Local Government Bodies: Honorarium, benefits for most reps doubled

The monthly honorarium and other benefits for over 65,000 elected representatives of the local government bodies have almost been doubled.

The pay hike took retrospective effect from July 1 last year, said a government circular issued yesterday.

The elected representatives include mayors and councillors of the city corporations and municipalities, chairmen and members of the Zila Parishads, chairmen and vice-chairmen of the Upazila Parishads and chairmen and members of the Union Parishads.

Most of them belong to the ruling Awami League.

The representatives would be paid from the revenue earned by their offices, Abdul Malek, secretary of the Local Government Division, said, adding that their honorarium was raised after four years.

“The hike was the demand of the time,” he told The Daily Star.

Talking to this newspaper, experts have hailed the decision to increase the honorarium and other benefits for the elected representatives.

They, however, stressed the need for monitoring the dedication and activities of the representatives to stop the misuse of money.

Local government expert Tofail Ahmed said hiking the honorarium is a good initiative as their previous honorarium was not enough as compared to their contribution to the society. 

“But there are many elected representatives who mainly aim to do business. Serving people is their second priority,” he said, adding that the government should make a policy to ensure that they stay at their office for a particular period of time every day to serve the public.

The AL has an absolute grip on all the elected bodies from the Union Parishads to the Jatiya Sangsad.

After assuming office for the second straight time, the party had hiked the monthly honorarium and other benefits for the lawmakers, ministers and public servants.

Contacted, Iftekharuzzaman, executive director of the Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB), said the hike in the honorarium for the local government representatives was hardly “surprising” following similar increases in the pays of MPs and public servants.  

“It [pay hike] possibly meets the expectations of the public representatives at various tiers of the local government,” he said.

Iftekharuzzaman also expressed his hope that the hike might stop a section of the representatives from abusing their power for making money.