Our View: Our deputies are not interested in a fairer society
Some nine years ago, when public finances were heading in the wrong direction, the scandal of multiple state pensions received by officials came to light and the deputies passed legislation in an attempt to remedy the situation. The law they passed, by which the public employee pension the state official received was reduced, was ruled unconstitutional in 2014 because the supreme court judges decided that a pension constituted a property right that could not be tampered with.
Of course, this ruling meant that nothing could be done about the people drawing two or three pensions for having served as minister, civil servant, and deputy or governor of the central bank. There was a handful of officials taking in the region of €10,000 a month in state pensions, something that could be described as lawful theft, and the supreme court upheld their appeal against the law reducing the amount, presumably because they constituted multiple properties. What the judges had not examined was whether the constitution protected the right to draw three pensions from the state for one working life?
The multiple pensions, according to the supreme court’s rulings, cannot be touched but a draft bill ending the practice of a state official receiving a state salary and pension was tabled in the House. The bill, tabled by Disy leader Averof Neophytou, would reduce the salary of an official, appointed or elected, so that the monthly income, including the pension would be equal to the pre-set salary for the post. There are currently 129 officials that receive pensions and state salary, at an annual cost to the taxpayer of €2 million. Deputies showed no interest in discussing the bill which has been gathering dust in the legislature for more than four years.
This could be because Neophytou had tabled a second bill, by which deputies and former ministers would have to turn 65, like the rest of the population, before they could draw their state pension. At present they receive their pension at 60. Deputies, probably have ignored the two bills because one would put an end to a privilege they enjoy. This is another form of corruption that our corruption-fighting deputies have no interest in addressing, thus sending the message that some are more equal than others.
We would have thought that the parties that are constantly talking about the unfairness of our society, would have been united in wanting to put an end to the shabby practice of state pension plus state salary, as well as the inequality of deputies receiving a state pension at a younger age than the rest of the population. What has happened to all the talk about a fairer society that we have been hearing ad nauseam?