Hungering Deputies Are Deprived from Wage Bonus

The head of the Chamber of Representatives of Belarusian Parliament Vadzim Papow ordered not to give any wage bonus (about one third of a deputy’s wage, 200 000 rubles) to Valery Fralow, Siarhey Skrabets and Uladzimir Parfianovich for “inappropriate execution of their official duties which manifested in absence at sittings of regular commissions of the Chamber of Representatives without good excuse”.

This order was allegedly signed by Papow when he received office memos from the heads of three regular commissions, Lektaraw, Kisialiow and Bikinin. For instance, Uladzimir Parfianovich works in the commission of health care, physical culture and family and youth affairs. The head of this commission, Valery Lektaraw stated that Parfianovich worked bad:
-- I think that there wasn’t any need for the hunger-strike. What they propose doesn’t solve any problems. They just needed to show off. If Parfianovich didn’t come to his work, what is he to be paid bonus for? There are commission sittings. He seldom came to them. He was to have reported on a law, but went to the US, it was interesting for him to walk with the opposition and cover the republic in mud”.

Lektaraw was surprised to hear Parfianovich had ulcer. By the way, Parfianovich had to put off his visit to the PACE session due to exacerbation of the ulcer.

According to Skrabets, nobody told them about the official memos, everything was kept in secret. He is sure that this decision is politically motivated:
-- Fralow has broken ribs, torn ear and bruises all over his body. They know about it in the Chamber of Representatives. All his money was stolen. We missed only one sitting without a good excuse, when we announced about the hunger-strike and now are deprived from monthly bonus. I can’t understand it. On the other hand, at 1.30 p.m. on 30 June all deputies with the head of the secretariat at the head went to Dudtki to celebrate the end of the session and drink vodka. By this they violated Presidential directive No. 1. The Parliament was actually paralyzed: it didn’t work for half a day. I can’t understand how one can combine it with deputy position. At the same time, the “Respublika” deputies worked really hard and kept hunger-strike for 19 days.

According to RFE/RL