‘Tax payers pay $180,000 for under-par output from leaders’
MEMBERS of Parliament (MP) perform poorly in the current 6th Parliament sitting but the cost to tax-payers remains high; according to data obtain by The Solomon Star.
The data showed times MPs spent in the meetings each day of the current session regardless of whether each MP remains for the duration of the sitting time.
According to the data, a day’s sitting under standing order 10, starts at 9:30am to 4:30pm.
That is a total of 7 hours each day and that comes with its cost.
Each MP is paid a meal allowance of $200 each day to represent their constituents in the meeting for the 7 hours.
Unfortunately, according to records, the times were mostly not maximized and some MPs did not remain for the 7 hours (only spent lesser time in the chamber).
A good number of times, parliament was normally adjourned which is still costly.
The current 6th meeting of the 9th Parliament, which started on April 3 to May 23, adds up to a given time of 203 hours of sitting time.
However according to the data for the 29 days of sitting from April 3 to May 23, only 88 hours of the 203 hours have been utilized.
That, according to the data represents only about 43 percent performance.
The 203 hours given within those 29 days cost tax payers $182,100, and worse still, some MPs do not even sit for the duration of the sitting time.
It would have not been an issue if the 203 hours was utilized and attendance was constantly high because the $182,100 expenses would be justified with a high performance output.
The following table shows clearly daily attendance, time utilized from the daily given 7 hours of sitting and cost incurred each day.