Jonglei civil servants’ salaries ‘disappear’
The Secretary-General of Jonglei State Workers Trade Union, Samuel Majier Loch, has complained that their salaries disappeared before reaching them in the state.
Majier claimed that the national government released the salaries but when it landed in the hands of the state government, it vanished. He said they would seek help from the national government should the state government fail to fulfill their promise to pay salaries within two or three days.
“When the remaining ministries are not paid their salaries, we are going to approach the state authorities to pay the salaries of the civil servants for October. If they fail to pay us totally, we are going to call for the national government to intervene to hold them accountable for the disappearance of the salaries of the civil servants,” Majier said.
“We are going to call for the government of national Unity for intervention, because the salaries are released by the government of national unity, and the money disappears in the middle. It is the duty of the government of national unity to hold those people accountable for that act.”
The union’s secretary-general said the ministry of finance had promised them full payment of salaries in two to three days’ time.
“Yesterday I was called by the Director General in the ministry of finance, saying he had little money that he would use to pay a few institutions like the ministry of parliamentary affairs, minister for youth and sport and Bor municipal council and revenue authority.”
He said the unpaid ministries included the ministry of cabinet affairs, ministry of local government, ministry of finance, ministry of agriculture, ministry of livestock, ministry of physical infrastructure and so forth.
Three ministries paid
Last month, after the visit of the national minister for public service, Joseph Bakosoro, the state government paid civil servants from three ministries including the ministry of public service, ministry of health and the ministry of education.
The civil servants from the remaining ministries threatened to sue the state’s accounting officer for delayed payment of their salaries.
“We are going to ask the accounting officer on Monday (today) about the other institutions,” he said, adding that his response would determine their next step. If he says there is no money, we are going to take another step because we heard some rumours that money is not there,” the Secretary General of the JSWTU, Samuel Majier said.
“If there is money, then maybe the other institutions will be paid on Monday, but if there is no money, we cannot go to the street this time; we are going to sue the accounting officer in court,” Majier threatened.
He promised that they would not return to demonstrations because they were told by the state government that the problem was lack of money.
