By K. Ericson Sayee
MONROVIA, April 12 (LINA) – Montserrado County’s Senator Abraham Darius Dillon has stressed the need for current lawmakers in the 55th legislature to revisit the retirement benefits for ex-officials of government to give a definite meaning to what he calls an “honorable retirement”.
For Senator Dillon, the law, which was adopted in 1972 and amended in 2003, must be re-examined by lawmakers to “harmonize it and make sense of it”, adding that if lawmakers muster the courage to reevaluate the law, it will save the country’s coffer.
Sen. Dillon, who appeared on a local talk show in Monrovia on Wednesday, April 9, 2025, said not all former officials deserve the retirement benefits, stating that if the law was to be amended, an incumbent official who seeks reelection and fails to reclaim his/her office, would have been deleted completely from the said retirement benefits.
“Our contemplation, at the time, was to save the country’s coffer. In 2023, 73 members of the House of Representatives went for reelection, I think about 30 or less returned. That means about 40 representatives who are former lawmakers in retirement can benefit from the law,” Senator said.
He further narrated that if an incumbent president and vice president were fired through an election by the people, they should not have benefited from the law, but since the law wasn’t amended, they are entitled to their benefits, stressing that if it would have been reviewed, anybody who goes to election and gets defeated would have been barred from receiving benefits.
Though the Montserrado County Senator backs former Vice President Taylor to receive her just benefits as enshrined in the law, he however disagrees with her having staffers, saying the “law says a staffer” and other facilities that shouldn’t exceed US$15 thousand per year.
“But when the former VP is already saying my staffers and my two cars, medical, sometimes you stretch it too much, you can lose the taste,” he said.
“A former VP is supposed to get 50 percent of a sitting VP salary and also he/she is entitled to a staff, not more than one staff, and other facilities shouldn’t be more than US$15 thousand”, Dillon says as he quoted the law.
He disclosed: “People who made the law in 1972, some of them were making $300, so if you are retired, you receive $100, but today, we make more than US$10 thousand.
According to him, an honorable retirement should be officials who did not seek reelection and are those who should benefit from the 1972 law, and he posed his question: “If I went to election in 2029, and the people who elected me, decide to fire me by their votes, is it an honorable retirement?
He said the law backs former senators, who were defeated while seeking to maintain their seats, are entitled to a 50 percent of the gross salary US$10,494 that they are making, and when taxes are cut, senators take about US $ 7, 900, stating that this law doesn’t augur well for the country.
Senator Dillon’s assertions about retirement benefits come amid huge concerns about the benefits public officials accrue when they leave office. It became a subject of public discourse when former Vice President Jewel Howard Taylor recently contended that she was not receiving her just retirement benefits.