Congressmen approve additional year-end bonuses despite budget cuts

Mexico's lower house of congress decided to decrease the amount of year-end bonuses that all 500 Mexican deputies will receive this year from 718,000 pesos to nearly half a million pesos.

The Chamber's Secretary-General, Mauricio Farah said that “718,000 pesos isn't true. That's a lie. Deputies are going to receive their monthly salary, plus their year-end bonus, which they're entitled to by law, and, provided that parliamentary groups reach an agreement, they may also receive an additional 150,000-peso bonus aimed at awarding their work and personnel. Not a single peso more.”

The legislator also added that the “extra bonus” was approved across party lines, just like last year. But unlike last year, they won't be receiving a bonus this year that was awarded to all 500 deputies so they could remodel their offices.

Farah made these comments after EL UNIVERSAL published an article on Wednesday, which states that each of the 500 deputies will receive a total of 718,000 thousand pesos in year-end bonuses, not 470,000 pesos: 357,000 pesos, which they are entitled to by law, plus an additional and secret “Christmas” bonus of 361,000 pesos that all deputies have been receiving over the last five years, but have not been disclosing to the public.

The bonus is deposited to each party and is then distributed among each legislator by parliamentary coordinators, according to the exclusive information obtained by EL UNIVERSAL.

Furthermore, according to several current and former legislators that EL UNIVERSAL spoke to, they say that the “Christmas bonus” is a “tradition”.

In total, these additional bonuses will cost Mexican taxpayers 180.5 million pesos, or approximately 8.7 million dollars.