MPs, staff, form co-operative

Members of the Lower Chamber of Parliament and employees of the House interested in being part of an in-house savings and credit cooperative will be obliged to part with at least Rwf 10,000 of their salary every month, The New Times reports. Initailly a five percent reduction on every member’s salary had been proposed but lawmakers later complained that the amount was too high for the genral parlimentray staff to afford. “Cooperatives are groupings of people who share common problems and depend on monetary resources to solve them. If you look at your salary, that of an MP and then that of a regular parliamentary employee, you will realise a mismatch. We need to revise that five percent issue,” MP Charles Kamanda said The two parties met yesterday to iron out the structure and functioning of the co-operative and agreed that for each member to be part of the venture, each had to part with Frw1,000 as registration fee. Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Jean Damascène Ntawukuriryayo, who headed the sub-committee that put in place the co-operative, explained that innitially, the savings and credit scheme had met several glitches before but that he was glad it had finally come to life. The members voted MP Pierre Claver Rwaka as President of the co-operative, Bernard Bashoga as Vice President and Aisha Mukamazimpaka, Secretary. Ends

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MPs, staff, form co-operative