South Sudan's national minister of public service Joseph Bangasi Bakosoro says the government has not been able to pay civil servants salaries due to the economic crisis facing the country, but promised that they are working on it.
Civil servants have gone without salary for about five months, although the government earlier announced that it had obtained finances to clear salary arrears.
Speaking to Radio Tamazuj, Bakosoro said, "Because of the economic crisis, the government is unable to pay the salary arrears of the workers, and the matter is not related to the ministry of public service, it is the problem of the government in general."
According to him, the government is working to increase the non-oil revenues although he says it is also not sufficient to pay all civil servants.
"We are working hard through our revenue authority to increase our revenue collection in all sectors to pay our civil servants. But this money is not enough to pay our employees every month. And we are working hard to close all the windows. It is not something that can be done in one day," he said. "There are public officials who are used to corrupt practices but we are working gradually to regulate this sector and we are hopeful that it will put an end to it and will be able to pay our employees every month."
The minister said his main goal is to see that civil servants receive their salaries monthly. He said discussing the arrears only frustrates workers.
"Let’s not open this page now because employees will get frustrated," he said.
Minister Bakosoro was cautious not to make any promises.
He added, "It depends on the collection of revenue, there is no specific time for that. We can’t guarantee that at this specific time we are going to pay them but we are working on the matter. This process needs a strategic plan on how you can pay your employees every month. But at the moment I don’t want to give empty promises to the people."
On March 31, 2021, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) approved a disbursement of $174.2 million to South Sudan under the Rapid Credit Facility (RCF) to address economic challenges due to a fall in international oil prices, the impact of Covid-19, and flooding that affected parts of the country.
The government then announced that it would use half of that money to support the budget and cover civil servants' salary arrears.
"This money doesn’t mean it will solve all our economic problems. This is a fund. When someone gives you help you don’t ask him/her why the help is so little? We indeed got some funds from the IMF but that will not solve all our problems or pay the government arrears," Bakosoro said.