PM’s chief of staff takes home highest government salary, website reveals

Mariano Rajoy’s chief of staff, Jorge Moragas, is the best paid member of the prime ministerial team – even outearning Rajoy himself. Information on the 2013 salaries of key government figures is included in the Spanish government’s new transparency website, which was launched on Wednesday.

Moragas is paid a gross salary of €113,186 a year, which breaks down to €9,432 a month. This salary includes extra payments given his 15-year career as a civil servant, and bonuses for seniority. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Rajoy is paid a salary of €78,185 a month (€6,515 a month).

Some of the other best-paid figures on the website include the director of Madrid’s Prado Museum, Miguel Zugaza, who receives a yearly gross salary of €133,097. The Defense Chief of Staff, General Fernando García Sánchez, is paid €119,251 a year.

Chief of staff Jorge Moragas is paid a gross salary of €113,186 a year, which breaks down to €9,432 a month

Other highly paid members of the prime ministerial team include the director of the economic office of the prime minister, Álvaro Nadal, who receives a salary of €112,733 a year.

The general secretary of the prime minister is paid €103,896 a year.

Among the 13 government ministries, Public Works Minister Ana Pastor is paid the highest salary, receiving €77,502 a year. The lowest ministerial salaries are paid to those at the head of the Foreign, Justice, Defense, Interior, Education, Employment and Health Ministries, all of which are paid €68,981 a year.

The highest-paid secretary of state is from the Justice Ministry, with €116,810. The lowest secretaries of state, including those from the Interior and Health Ministries, take home €108,000 a year.

Limited access

The government’s new project, which cost around €300,000 to complete, represents the first great transparency effort by the ruling Popular Party (PP) and is part of a new Transparency Law that goes into effect today.

Transparencia.gob.es hosts information that Spaniards have never had access to before, such as which contracts and subsidies their elected officials award, and what agreements they enter into.

But just as relevant as the information that is on the website is the information left out of it.

Some data will only be available upon request. Petitions may be filed directly on the website, but users will have to identify themselves. A team of up to 36 civil servants will transfer requests to the agency in possession of the relevant information, and a reply will be issued within 30 days.