Million-dollar incomes: who among the heads of the secretariats of the committees of the Verkhovna Rada received the most?

Heads of committee secretariats received million-dollar incomes in 2022. These amounts significantly exceed the annual income of committee heads.

The highest earner was the head of the budget committee secretariat, Andriy Vatulov, who received over 1.5 million hryvnias.

For comparison, at that time, committee head MP Yuriy Aristov (“Servant of the People”) received just over 0.4 million hryvnias per year.

These findings are based on an analysis of declarations by committee heads and secretariat heads of the Verkhovna Rada conducted by the civic initiative “Holka.”

The leadership of the Verkhovna Rada’s Apparatus received even higher incomes. Thus, the head of the Apparatus, Vyacheslav Shtuchny, received almost 3 million. His deputies, Artem Yanchuk and Mykola Shevchuk, received 2.5 million each. The salaries of committee heads are 5-6 times smaller than theirs. (For comparison, President Volodymyr Zelensky’s income as president of Ukraine for the same year was just over 0.3 million hryvnias.)

Such a imbalance in the Verkhovna Rada arose because Ukrainian MPs decided to create exclusive conditions for the employees of the Verkhovna Rada’s Apparatus. This was done through amendments to the budget for 2024, authored in part by Speaker Ruslan Stefanchuk and Vice-Speaker Oleksandr Kornienko.

“This is a road to nowhere. Ukraine needs to reform the remuneration of civil servants. It should be that salaries constitute 70% of income, with bonuses making up only 30%. But we often see that salaries are meager, while bonuses are exorbitant. After the parliament slashed this with amendments, wonders with the “staff” began in other institutions, including the Supreme Court, where they did everything to protect their apparatus. They also know how to read the final provisions of the budget. The situation needs to be corrected not only with unequal conditions for the parliament’s apparatus. Committee heads cannot receive less than their subordinates, just as the president cannot receive around 300,000 hryvnias per year. This is absurd. Playing populism with such salaries in parliament can cost the country dearly because MPs are also responsible for defending sovereignty and must be independent. Such populism threatens the work of the Verkhovna Rada in times of war,” emphasizes the head of the civic initiative “Holka,” Irina Fedoriv.

Regarding the disparity in salaries between MPs and heads of committee secretariats, Deputy Minister of Finance Roman Yermolichev explains that if MPs had not defended the apparatus, there would not have been such distortions in the remuneration of apparatus employees compared to other civil servants:

What's the way out of the situation?

Roman Yermolychev

Deputy Minister of Finance

The salary of a member of parliament is directly set by the parliament itself. The issue of raising salaries for MPs is indeed unpopular. People usually compare their own wealth and incomes with those of politicians, and it's usually not in their favor, causing outrage. If there is consensus in the Verkhovna Rada on the need to raise MPs' salaries, changes to the budget should be adopted. It's also important to understand that when we talk about the current budget, there needs to be a source from which we will take the funds. Perhaps in the budget for the next year, a higher salary can be included once the economic situation stabilizes. However, this also requires political consensus and a clear understanding of the sources from which such expenditures will be covered. The issue of raising salaries in the Verkhovna Rada has always been unpopular, and during times of martial law, it is particularly keenly felt.