Civil servants across Sierra Leone are squarely feeling the brunt of the delays in their monthly salaries by the Government of Sierra Leone in the last twenty (20) months.
Even when the APC was accused of having to borrow bank drafts from various commercial banks civil servants have applauded their effectiveness in paying salaries.
The New Direction Government has hugely criticized the previous government wage bill and debt levels.They have bogusly recounted that such debt levels and wage bill are highly unsustainable and a burden on the economy.
Some almost two years down the line the current wage bill and foreign debt levels of the government have increased astronomically.
The new government has largely not been able to effectively manage both the wage bill and the external debt levels.
The recruitment of thousands of workers in the teaching and health sectors and also the creation of ‘’jobs for the boys’’ by the New Direction Government has bloated the wage bill bringing it to a record level of over two hundred billion Leones from an original one hundred and fifty billion Leones which they inherited in April, 2018.
Samuel Kallon a civil servant told this medium that in the last two years under the New Direction they are receiving salaries late between the 8th to the 10th of the other month.
“Things were better off in the APC as our salaries were paid prompt around the 25th and 27th of the month,’’ he stated.
Police and other members of the security forces are going for over six (6) months now without rice supply.The Police management has told the media in a press briefing at Police Headquarters that they have not been able to supply rice to their personnel because they owe SAAD Group the supplier over eighteen (18) billion Leones.
Police officers are increasingly concerned that the campaign promises by the new government to provide them with additional condiments to the monthly rice supply has not been met.
‘’If government cannot add the condiments to the normal rice supply as they have promised prior to the March 2018 elections then let us continue to have the normal rice supply they inherited from the last government ’’ a senior Police Officer fumed.
An official from the Ministry of Finance who spoke to this medium on anonymity has stated that the authorities at the Ministry of Finance now prefer to service debts of contractors rather than prioritizing the early payment of salaries for workers.
This according to him has been the major cause for the delays in the payment of salaries for workers.
Many are wondering why the authorities at the Ministry of Finance should shelve-off the issue of paying civil servants salaries on time against paying contractors.
The issue of debt financing by the New Direction government over the last two years has been very suspicious.
The New Direction Government had lampooned the APC of incurring highly suspicious debts both locally and internationally allegedly from companies owed by surrogates of the previous regime records.
But the Ministry of Finance has consistently showed commitments in honoring these debts and also establishing further ties with these same contractors. Hello is somebody listening?
The same Lebanese and other highly influential contractors who were holding the forth during the APC in terms of wielding very expensive contracts have continued to benefit from these same contracts.
So what is new in the direction?
If Government is claiming to be keen on developing the Human Capital of the country then addressing the welfare of this human resource should be paramount for them.
It is better for a government to borrow from banks and address the plight of its workers rather than deviating from such and then delaying the meager salaries of workers.
We are getting suspicious over the debt financing arrangements of government in the last two years. Figures from the Ministry of Finance regarding debts financing are conflicting. Can the ACC Czar at least turn his attention to this area.
We are reliably informed that the exuberance by the Ministry of Finance to honor these debts even at the expense of our workforce and our meager resources is an issue for concern.