Officials received “bonuses” for devaluation

The difference between salaries of officials and usual citizens is striking.

One of the viewers of charter97.org website has pointed to this difference reflected in the official statistics of salary levels in December 2014.

“According to the Belarusian State Statistics Committee, the average salary in Belarus over 2014 was about Br6,806,000, while the salary in the state administration sector over the same period was Br8,539,700. That is, y the end of the year a rank-and-file official received a sum which was by 25.5% higher than an average citizen.

The state decided to give officials Br1,733,700 more than common citizens, as they have more needs probably. And notably, the greatest difference between the salaries of other citizens and officials was experienced by dwellers of Vitsebsk region. Revenues of an official living in this northern province of Belarus, were higher than salaries of other dwellers of Vitsebsk region by 38.3%, or by Br2,243,400,” he writes.

The correlation between salaries in the state administration agencies and the budget sphere is even more dramatic. For example, employees of social services receive less than a half of what an average government employee had in December 2014. The situation in the spheres of education and health care was not much better – the misbalance of salaries was dozens of per cents there.

“It is not enough that pockets of officials were full of newly printed money, in the pre-election year salaries of public sector workers were growing much faster than salaries of mere mortals,” the reader stresses. “In Minsk an official was to receive by 22.1% more than in last November, while an average Minsk dweller could boast of 13% pay growth (in real terms, considering infaltion).”