Montserrado County Senator Darious Dillon has launched what seems to be a politically debatable crusade spotlighting the need for members of the Liberian Senate to slit their more than US$15,000.00 salary each to US5, 000.00 amid Liberia’s ailing economy.
Senator Dillon is trekking a path which former Margibi Senator Oscar Cooper followed while at the Senate in the past but did not succeed due to adamant resistance from his colleagues. He (Cooper) advocated for salary reduction at the Senate in order to increase civil servants’ salaries at the time but to no avail.
However, Senator Dillon’s advocacy has pricked reactions from the public domain, one of which has come from a Liberian researcher- Martin Kolleh who has catalogued the salaries and benefits of members of the Liberian Senate.
“ They are still earning more than 15,000.00 every month, and here’s our evidence. Like 29 senators, did Senator Abel Darius Dillon receive it too? Yes!” Kolleh has noted.
“ We are not saying salary alone, we are saying that no one should get more than US$5, 000.00 per month in both salary and benefits, “ he further indicated from his most recent facebook post.
In advancing and proving what the senators get yearly as salaries, Kolleh catalogued the following from 2024 to 2026:
FY2024: US3,500, 259
FY2025: US3,319,265
FY2026: US3,319,265
Summing up the total, Kolleh said what the thirty senators are entitled to from 2024-2026 is US10,138,789; adding, “Imagine a whopping US$10.1 million just in salary alone for only 30 persons while millions of Liberians including the youth, remain jobless. Each senator got US$337,959 on average.”
According to him, for benefits, the thirty senators are entitled to the following amounts yearly:
FY2024: US$1,408,3375
FY2025: US$290, 000
FY2026: US$95,826, totaling US$1,794,201.
Kolleh also singled out the following for Legislative Committee Hearing for thirty senators:
FY2024: US$3, 988,202
FY2025: US$2,177,245
FY2026: US$2,900,000, totaling US$8,342,692 as committee hearing allowance for senators.
Though there are Liberians who seem to laud Senator Dillon for a call to reduce the salary of each senator from over 15,000.00 to 5,000.00, critics claim that the Montserrado Senator is sending out a political bit to make the electorate believe that he cares so much for the masses.
“Dillon is strategizing for 2029 elections slowly but Liberians will not be sway in this manner. He claimed to be the light in the past and we supported him. Is he still giving the 5,000.00 United States Dollars from his salary to the county? Dillon is one of those who lured Liberians into believing that it was not necessary to reduce the terms of the president, representative and senators during the regime of former President George Weah, when there was a referendum,” one critic noted over the weekend in Monrovia.
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