Social Democratic Party MPs Arsen Bauk and Pedja Grbin have 'mastered the art of utilizing all perks available to legislators,' Wednesday's edition of the Jutarnji List daily said.

“Even though both of them have lived in Zagreb for more than 10 years, their families are living with them, their partners are employed in Zagreb and their children were born in Zagreb, neither of them has changed their residency. Bauk is still registered on Brac Island and Grbin in the city of Pula,” state agency Hina said, citing the article.

The Parliament is paying their rent in Zagreb and both of them are paid tens of thousands of kuna for travel expenses to and from Brac and Pula. Until a month ago, Grbin was even paid a special allowance for living away from home, which he has now renounced so that he could enroll his child in a kindergarten in Zagreb.

“Over the fifteen years that Bauk has been an MP and office-holder, he has managed to deposit about 5.5 million kuna in his bank account and about 40 percent of his income or 627,000 kuna (€83,000) is deposited in savings. His savings amount to just a little more than the budget money paid out to cover Bauk’s rental costs,” Hina said, citing Jutarnji List.

Despite the fact that his wife is a Zagreb local and his child was born in Zagreb about two years ago, Bauk claims that he is living at the government’s expense in Zagreb “only temporarily.”

Bauk admits that he does not receive the allowance in the amount of 1,000 kuna per month. Bauk told the daily that it would be stupid to receive that perk as he did not live separately from his partner.

However, Bauk doesn’t consider it to be stupid that his party leader, Grbin, is in a similar situation and has lived in Zagreb for years yet taxpayers are paying for his rent in Zagreb but also for each time he travels to his hometown to Pula.

Explaining his entitlement to the allowance, Grbin said that the parliament decided that that allowance is paid to MPs who do not live in Zagreb but come from other cities and it is an allowance paid to MPs because of a requirement to live away from their usual place of residence to do their job.

He admitted however that in order to “enroll our child in kindergarten, I have requested the Parliament to cease paying me that allowance and as of 1 January, I am no longer receiving it,” said Grbin.