DO you think Members of the Parliamentary Entitlements Commission (PEC) are on a salary? If so, how much do you think they get in a fortnight or a year?

The truth is that PEC members do not receive a salary. They get a sitting allowance of around $400 per sitting, which is quite infrequent.

As one member who spoke on anonymity told me recently, “we meet only whenever there’s an agenda on the table. And that’s when we get paid a sitting allowance. Other than that, we get nothing else.”

There are five members on the PEC, a body set up by an Act of Parliament to look after the welfare of our 50 MPs. They have a Chairman and two ordinary members.

By law, the Minister of Finance and the Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee sit on the PEC Board.

The PEC’s task is a fulltime job. Its members are appointed for three years.

Among other things, the PEC receives verbal and sometimes written submissions on issues such as MPs’ salaries, their terms and conditions as well as other matters such as pension.

Last year for example it tested the law to see if it had the power to grant MPs tax-free salaries. The matter ended up in the High Court, which ruled against the PEC.

But in a landmark Court of Appeal decision, the Court overturned the initial ruling. That determination (tax-free salaries) is under consideration.

The PEC wants the tax-free to be removed as a trade-off for higher salaries for Members of Parliament.

Over the next two months, PEC members would continue consultations with stakeholders on the number of changes being envisaged for the new salaries and other entitlements to come into force on April 1 this year.

Until then, Member of Parliament will continue to draw tax-free salaries until the regulations are changed.

What do you think? Should PEC members be remunerated just like any other Board Members appointed under a statute of Parliament?

Due to cost of living increases, the PEC members themselves are feeling the pinch.

They have made a submission to the Office of the Prime Minister, seeking consideration of their plight. After all, they too have families to look after.

To date that submission seems to have fallen on deaf ears.