Rada To Set Official Salary Of National TV Council Chair At UAH 84,100

The Verkhovna Rada intends to set the official salary of the chairperson of the National Council for Television and Radio Broadcasting at 40 minimum wages for able-bodied people (UAH 84,080).

269 MPs deputies voted for the adoption of bill No. 4107, with the minimum required 226, Ukrainian News Agency reports.

The Verkhovna Rada intends to set the official salaries of members of the National Council in accordance with the size of the subsistence minimum for able-bodied persons, established as of January 1 of the calendar year (1 subsistence minimum for able-bodied persons, UAH 2,102): for the chairperson of the National Council - 40 (UAH 84,080), for the first deputy chairperson of the National Council - 37 (UAH 77,774), for the deputy chairperson of the National Council and the executive secretary of the National Council - 35 (UAH 73,570), for a member of the National Council - 33 (UAH 69,366).

The Verkhovna Rada also intends to establish increments, surcharges, bonuses and other payments to members of the National Council within the limits of the corresponding budgetary assignments in the manner and amounts determined by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine and by decision of the National Council, while the amount of the monthly bonus of the chairperson, first deputy chairperson, deputy chairperson, responsible secretary, member of the National Council cannot exceed 30 percent of his official salary.

Besides, the Verkhovna Rada intends to set an annual paid vacation of 30 calendar days for members of the National Council with the payment of financial assistance for health improvement in the amount of the average monthly salary.

According to the declaration for 2019 of Olha Herasymiuk, who was then the first deputy chairperson of the National Council, in 2019 she received UAH 370,423 of salary, thus her average monthly salary was UAH 30,900, which is 2.5 times less than the proposed salary level of the first deputy chairperson (excluding bonuses and other surcharges).

The Verkhovna Rada also intends to establish that the organization of the work of the chairperson and members of the National Council is provided by the patronage service, which includes: assistant-consultants of the members of the National Council (one representative each), an assistant and a referent to the chairperson of the National Council, in addition, the chairperson of the National Council has the right to appoint an adviser on a voluntary basis.

The official salary of assistants-consultants of the members of the National Council, assistant and referent to the chairperson of the National Council is set in the amount of 1/3 of the salary of the chairperson of the National Council, setting of bonuses and other payments to employees of the patronage service is carried out in the manner and amount determined by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine.

As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, in April 2020, the work of the National Council received a negative assessment from both the President and the relevant parliamentary committee.

On April 4, Zelenskyy dismissed all four members of the National Council according to his quota due to an unsatisfactory assessment of the activities based on the results of the consideration of the report, but then he appointed two of them again.

On April 8, the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Humanitarian and Information Policy recommends the parliament recognize the work of the National Council on Television and Radio Broadcasting as unsatisfactory, but the Verkhovna Rada did not consider the report.