By Tony Yayo
Some civil servants in most government ministries, departments and agencies (MDA’s) are yet to receive their January salaries prompting angry reactions from different sections of society.
Public Relations Officer, Ministry of Finance, Mohamed Sesay has apologized for the delays which he attributed to a technical glitch at the salary-processing office.
Sesay confirmed yesterday that some MDAs were yet to receive their January salaries owing to low revenue generation by government for the past months.
He assured the affected civil servants that they were working very hard to make salaries available by mid-week for the third batch of civil servants.
He disclosed that there are lots of salary and contract cheques at the ministry but said the Ministry could not attend to all of them, at the moment, owing to the newly established procedures at the ministry.
The MOF spokesman also confirmed that the government has not, in the last two years, resort to any bank borrowing to pay salaries of workers. “The government relies only on the money generated by government to pay salaries,” Sesay said.
Sesay apologised to all civil servants yet to receive their salaries and assured them they would get their pay as soon as possible. “The payment of salaries is statutory,” he said.
Reacting to latest the development, one civil servant who spoke to this press, faulted government for the delays and condemned the reasons advanced by government, The delays are not justifiable,” he said.
He observed that government’s justification of the delay is an indication that its officials do not care about the wellbeing of civil servants, particularly teachers who are in the majority.