More than $33 million a year is spent just to pay the salaries of Legislature officials. However, the work has been slow, the assembly members have only approved 21 laws.
The National Assembly allocates $33 million annually just to pay the salaries of 1,265 people, including legislators, advisers, administrative staff, and other officials.
That value is paid, despite the fact that the Assembly members do not attend the calls for sessions, or that instead of dealing with the laws that interest the country, there are confrontations, as happened on February 24, when the cries and claims of the correista bench of Unión por la Esperanza (Unes) were present.
What happened on the holiday
At the gates of the Carnival, on Thursday, February 24, Unes wanted to change the order of the day, while Guadalupe Llori suspended the session. The reason was that legislator Fausto Jarrín (Unes) requested to include in the Plenary Session the formation of a Multiparty Commission to analyze the work of the Assembly’s Board of Directors. With this procedure, one could dismiss the President of the Assembly. You can request three changes per session and they had already been fulfilled, so Jarrín’s request was not granted.
On Saturday, February 26, Llori reinstated session 759, suspended on Thursday, but there was no quorum, 70 parliamentarians were absent. The meeting was virtual.
The absences were from the Unes, Pachakutik, Social Christian and independent benches.
The last day of Carnival, March 1 at night, Llori assured, in a social media video, that she feels “politically harassed”
Assembly cost is high but don’t feel
For political analyst and professor José Julio Cisneros, the problem with the Legislature is that its actions show that the political agenda is more important for the institution than the country’s agenda. “How can we expect them to get to work if, among the same groups, there is no agreement?” Cisneros asks.
He also considers that the problem is that in all these messes “the country is left aside.” And, every day without agreements, it costs.
$33 million in salaries alone
On the website of the National Assembly, in the transparency section, there is a document that accounts for the monthly salaries for February. Approved on January 31, 2022.
According to the report, about $33 million a year is spent just on the salaries of the 1,265 people who work in the National Assembly. This does not include thirteenth and fourth, or per diem.
According to article 159, the Organic Law of the Legislative Function, each member of the Assembly can have two advisers and two assistants.
Only in salaries, an assemblyman and his team cost around $13,000 thousand per month. In total, there are 137 assembly members.
According to the Organic Code of the Legislative Function, in article 160, assembly members who live more than 60 kilometers around the Metropolitan District of Quito will receive additional compensation for housing. Members of the Assembly who live abroad receive an increase of at least 25% of their original salary, as do Members of the Assembly who live in provinces far from Pichincha.
In travel expenses, according to a document from the General Financial Coordination, uploaded to the web, an expense of 59 thousand 153 dollars is recorded, in trips between November 9 and December 22, 2021.
More discussions than debate
The National Assembly began its activities on May 14, 2021. In these nine months in office, the Plenary has approved 21 laws and issued 51 resolutions.
There have been 96 plenary sessions, 88 culminated, eight were suspended, including the last one on February 24 last.
