Legislature unable to trim fat
Proposed plans to reduce the personnel costs in the National Assembly will not bear fruit. While some representatives were looking to cut 20% of the payroll, others were proposing eliminating a concrete 160 jobs. Although no opponents came to light, apparently there is a lack of “political will” to implement the cuts.
Currently the legislature employs 1003 people, not including the 58 elected lawmakers. That’s 17.29 employees per lawmaker, in case you were wondering. It was noted that payroll costs account for a whopping 80% of the legislature’s total costs, which annually total 14 billion colones. (nearly 28 million US dollars)