OUAGADOUGOU--Lawmakers in Burkina Faso gave themselves a 50-percent pay cut Tuesday, following a public outcry over the "indecent" wages enjoyed by members of the country's interim assembly.
The 90 members of the National Transitional Council, which has governed the west African state since the overthrow of longtime president Blaise Compaore in a popular uprising in October, said they had decided to renounce a top-up payment that doubled their monthly salary of 880,000 CFA (1,340 euros, $1,580).
"We don't want to profit from the revolution. We commit to not betray the memory and sense of sacrifice of our martyrs," the vice-president of the council Honore Nombre said at the weekend.
The population of the west African country had been up in arms over the deputies' wages, calling the packages "astronomical" and "indecent" at a time when ordinary citizens are being asked to tighten their belts.
Burkina Faso is one of the world's poorest countries, ranked 181 out of 187 on the 2013 UN Human Development Index.
Civil society groups had threatened to return to the street if the lawmakers did not dock their pay.
Compaore fled the country of 18 million on October 31 after being ousted in a revolt sparked by his bid to extend his 27-year rule.
His regime was regularly accused of corruption.
AFP
