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Zagreb - The parliamentary opposition on Thursday had no major objections to the amendments to the Law on Salaries in Local Government Units, however, it warned about the excessive number of local government units compared to the number of residents, underscoring the need for a comprehensive reform.
We have 555 local government units and 3.8 million inhabitants. Almost every tenth resident works in local government and about 20 percent of municipalities are economically unsustainable, said Davor Dretar (DP), concluding that nothing will change as long as this is the case.
It is necessary to reduce the number of local government units and increase the salaries of local officials because staff are leaving due to low salaries, he added.
Mišel Jakšić (SDP) also said that there are too many municipalities, cities and counties and that in some cases 50 to 60 percent of their income went for salaries.
"Without clear decentralisation, clear reforms and without a system in which it is known what the salaries are for people willing to work in local government and those who work well are valued, we will not become a better business-friendly country, nor will we suppress corruption or keep the best people," said Jakšić.
Ante Kujundžić (Bridge) underscored that a "new wind" in local units requires young and capable people who need to be paid.
"It is not a problem to pay someone who is worth it, the problem is a system that has accumulated 20,000 new people in the last six years", said Kujundžić, citing the fact that after the local elections in 2017, the number of civil servants and state employees increased by 11.2% in cities and by 7.3% in municipalities.
We have 1,322 county prefects and mayors and their deputies in the counties, cities and municipalities and if you add city and municipal councillors, that number rises to more than 11,000 politicians, said Marijana Puljak (Centre and GLAS), who called for significantly reducing the number of local government units.
Under the amendments to the Law on Salaries in Local and Regional Government Units, the amount allocated for the salaries of employees in local and regional government should not exceed 18 percent of the revenue of a government unit generated in the year preceding the budget year.