RPP members' unpaid salary demands spark outrage among politicians

Politicians have expressed outrage that six Monetary Policy Council (RPP) me mbers are seeking zl.325,500 each in compensation for unpaid salaries. Under the Law on the National Bank of Poland (NBP), RPP members' salaries are set at the same level as those of NBP deputy governors. But when NBP governor Le szek Balcerowicz in June revealed those salaries, it turned out that RPP mem bers were earning zl.25,840 a month each, while the two deputy governors wer e being paid zl.36,200 and zl.33,700. The NBP claims that the difference ste ms from the various bonuses that RPP members are not entitled to receive, bu t which deputy governors are. Politicians from most parties are outraged. "I t's a disgrace that in the current situation of the state budget, when peopl e can't buy bread, [RPP members] want even more money," said farmers' leader Andrzej Lepper, always a strong opponent of the RPP and its decisions. "This incident sheds light on both the intellectual and the moral level of people who have a key influence on the Polish economy," said Jaroslaw Kaczynski fro m Law and Justice (PiS). Meanwhile, two ruling coalition members, the Labor Union (UP) and the Polish Peasants Party (PSL), have both said they will pro pose legislation to bring RPP members' pay in line with that of government m inisters. This would mean cutting their salaries roughly in half. (Zycie, p. 4; Gazeta Wyborcza, p. 15) T.J.