Kirghiz citizens literally tear this newspaper out of each
other’s hands (which, by the way, has very small circulation); everybody is interested to know about President’s wages and his property, especially that there are persistent rumours about his multimillion dollar accounts in foreign banks, the majority shareholding in the most profitable businesses, houses etc.
As the introduction to the document states, "all the civil servants must declare their income annually for the past year and any property they own". And the President "as a law-abiding citizen and the guarantor of the Constitution... openly presents information about his income" setting an example for all the civil servants to follow. So, according to the Report, in 2002 Akaev’s salary amounted up to a total of 501,222 soms ($1 equals 46 soms) which makes it $913 a month. For his book "A Hard Way To Democracy" he received a fee of $30,104 and also international prises of the total sum of $20,065. President’s property: a house of 331.8 square meters, Mercedes Jeep manufactured in 1995, 152 shares in a rather profitable Kirghiztelecom, six units of weapons, two horses.
Further the report declares the property of head’s of state spouse, Mairam Akaeva. Fees and income from the sales of her books amounted to $177,538.5; from this sum she gave to charitable causes nearly $43,478. She owns a flat of 125.2 square meters. At a few clicks of the calculator the total sum of the President’s household income works out at nearly 9 million soms or $200,000. This is, of course, according to
the published declaration.
It is remarkable that in early February government press published extensive materials dedicated to "splendour of the Parliament and destitution of the President". The materials told a detailed story illustrated with figures about the millions from the state budget spent by the legislators on repairs of the Parliament buildings, about the business, the incomes and expensive flats of the MPs etc. All this was compared to the destitute Presidential Residence, which during the years of independence hasn’t been repaired once, and to the President’s wages (by the way, the figure stated there was 21,000 soms a month, although the declaration makes it double that amount).
So, here are a few more figures for comparison. An average pension in Kirghizia is 500 soms ($10.86), teachers’ and militiamen’s salaries are between 1,000 and 2,500 soms (between $21.74 and $54.35) a month. In the countryside people mainly survive due to barter, and a sum of 2,000 soms
appears enormous to many peasants.