Representatives Spent 5 Million Kuna on Per Diems, Hotels, Airplanes in Half a Year….

SDP’s Domagoj Hajduković with 89,913 kuna and HDZ’s Ante Bačić with 89,488 kuna are the parliamentary record holders for additional spending, which goes towards per diems, airplanes, hotels, allowances for separate living, etc. In addition to their regular salaries, representatives are entitled to cover additional expenses, and in the first half of this year, they spent an additional 5.1 million kuna on these extra costs.

These are representatives, members of several parliamentary committees, some of which entail frequent official trips abroad, and thus certain expenses, such as costs for airplanes and hotels. In Hajduković’s case, airplane costs amount to just over 15,000 kuna, hotel costs to 17,000 kuna, while Bačić spent just over 17,000 kuna on airplanes and around 6,000 kuna on hotels in the first half of the year.

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Following them in expenses are HDZ’s Željko Raguž (85,378 kuna), Sanja Putica (83,608 kuna), and Miro Kovač (82,873 kuna). For Raguž, who entered the Parliament from the diaspora list, the largest item is car expenses (45,360 kuna) as he travels from Herzegovina to attend sessions. Putica and Kovač are also members of committees that involve frequent travel, such as the foreign policy committee, the European affairs committee, and the inter-parliamentary cooperation committee, etc.

23 representatives had no other expenses

On the other hand, 23 representatives had no other expenses aside from their salaries, mostly those residing in Zagreb and its surroundings.

The President of the Parliament, Gordan Jandroković, had 36,000 kuna in additional expenses in half a year, of which almost a third was for airplanes. His duty, in fact, involves frequent travel outside Croatia.

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Looking at the structure of the total expense of 5.1 million kuna incurred from January 1 to July 10, 2018, the largest amount, almost 1.7 million kuna, is attributed to the use of personal cars for official purposes, followed by housing costs (1.4 million), to which 150,000 kuna for utilities in those apartments should be added. Representatives living outside Zagreb are entitled to rent an apartment up to 2,500 kuna and utility costs up to 500 kuna per month, which is covered by the Parliament, while any amount above these figures is paid by themselves.

On public transport – 18,000

Representatives spent 587,000 kuna on airplane tickets, 483,000 kuna was paid for separate living, 288,000 kuna for tolls, and accommodation in hotels cost them 258,000 kuna. For per diems, representatives were paid almost 142,000 kuna, and for other expenses (representation on official trips, registration fees, taxis, etc.) just under 29,000 kuna.

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The public transport item is generally the smallest, amounting to less than 18,000 kuna for the first half of the year. Only 15 out of 151 representatives chose to travel by public transport – bus, train, ferry. The amounts spent of 3,990 and 3,597 kuna indicate that public transport was most frequently used by SDP’s Marta Luc-Polanc and HDZ’s Branko Bačić.