Op­po­si­tion Leader Dr Kei­th Row­ley says par­lia­men­tary com­mit­tees are not mon­i­tor­ing Gov­ern­ment's ex­pen­di­ture prop­er­ly. Row­ley said that in an in­ter­view with the T&T Guardian yes­ter­day. He said the com­mit­tees have not been meet­ing to mon­i­tor the Gov­ern­ment's bil­lion-dol­lar bud­getary ex­pen­di­ture prop­er­ly. "All that has been tak­ing place is pre­tend­ing," Row­ley added. He said many of the com­mit­tees were un­able to meet be­cause some mem­bers have Cab­i­net com­mit­ments. He said there was a need to change the ex­ist­ing arrange­ments and al­low for par­lia­men­tar­i­ans, who now op­er­ate on a part-time ba­sis, to be prop­er­ly com­pen­sat­ed and work as full-time MPs. Row­ley said the work of the par­lia­men­tary com­mit­tees was be­ing ham­pered as mem­bers were paid in­ad­e­quate salaries and had to work pri­vate­ly to earn their liv­ing. Row­ley said even his job was a part-time job. A mem­ber of the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives is paid a month­ly salary of $14,000 with a trans­porta­tion al­lowance of $4,200 and a com­mit­tee ser­vice al­lowance of $1,000 a month per com­mit­tee. A sen­a­tor is paid $10,500 with a month­ly trans­porta­tion al­lowance of $3,800 and a com­mit­tee ser­vice al­lowance of $1,000.

Com­par­a­tive salary ta­ble for MPs:

• T&T US $2,187 a month (part-time)

• Ja­maica US$2,205 (part-time)

• Bar­ba­dos US$2,000 (part-time)

• Bermu­da US$4,668 (part-time)

• Scot­land US$7,571 (full time)

• Wales US$7,088 (full time)

Row­ley in­sist­ed the so­lu­tion was to have small­er Cab­i­nets and large par­lia­men­tary com­mit­tees. He said MPs' salaries could be in­creased to en­sure they were able to be ful­ly com­mit­ted to their jobs and would not have to seek ad­di­tion­al em­ploy­ment to earn their liv­ing.