Benin – Leaders’ Salaries: opposition deputies demand transparency

In a publication dated June 19, 2025, Bio Sika Abdel Kamel Ouassagari, a member of the parliamentary group Les Démocrates, announced that he had submitted, along with twelve other colleagues, a question for oral debate to the government.

This parliamentary initiative is part of the scrutiny of government action and aims to ensure the official publication of the salaries received by the country’s main leaders. The document, signed by a total of thirteen deputies, raises questions about the salaries of the President of the Republic, the Vice-President, the ministers, as well as the heads of several institutions such as the Constitutional Court, the High Court of Justice, the HAAC, the National Mediator, and the High Commission for the Prevention of Corruption.

The parliamentarians are asking for communication of the corresponding pay slips, as well as the decrees and administrative decisions that set these salaries. They notably mention two regulatory texts, including a 2017 decree, which governs the compensation of cabinet directors, general secretaries, and prefects.

The deputies also wish to know whether the salaries of technical advisors and other high-level executives within the ministries have been revalued in the same dynamic.

Finally, their request extends to the leaders of three major strategic public agencies: the Road Infrastructure and Territorial Development Corporation (SIRAT SA), the Real Estate and Urban Development Corporation (SIMAU), and the National Lottery of Benin (LNB). Here again, the elected officials demand the pay slips and the minutes of board meetings that approved the salary scales.

This approach reopens the debate about transparency in the management of public resources, as the topic remains sensitive in public opinion. The government is now expected to respond to these questions in Parliament.