South Sudan to crack down payroll irregularities
April 19, 2007 (JUBA) — Southern Sudan cabinet has instructed ministry of finance to rapidly develop a workable payroll for the civil service which can weed out ghost workers and control expenditure. The government also intends to crack down payroll irregularities, the GoSS spokesperson said yesterday evening.
“The Ministry of Finance had been instructed to make savings on payroll.” Samson Kowaje the GoSS spokesperson said on Wednesday. “It seems that a lot of ministries have either ‘ghost workers’, or double payments… Ministers will now sit down with their Directors, Directors General and Under-Secretaries to check on this”. He added.
“There are perhaps 1000 senior civil servants now assembled in Juba, but still no functional payroll across the south, no well established set of financial rules on how to manage and report on accounts, and no clear arrangements yet on the division of responsibilities and budgets between Juba and lower levels of government.” The World Bank representative to Sudan Ishac Diwan told Sudan Tribune earlier this year.
According to Diwan, World Bank had expressed concern about the need for greater discipline and coordination in the cabinet about public borrowing decisions. The lack of payroll in the south not only allowed corruption but also generated delay in the payment of salaries.
Kwaje also said that the southern Sudan cabinet had resolved to freeze recruitment in 2007 in an effort to save money. “There is once again a deficit of around 15.8 Million New Sudanese Pounds per month, or almost 160 million Dinar.” he added.
The methods available to save money included; saving money from the payroll, freezing recruitments, or increasing non-oil revenues. Both of the first two measures have been acted on in Wednesday council of ministers meeting.
The meeting discussed the functioning of the Ministry of Finance. The current financial environment is necessitating difficult financial decisions, due to such factors as a large recruitment, reorganization of the Army and absorption of Other Armed Groups (OAGs).
“As a result there is a need to find ‘new methods of raising revenues and stabilizing the financial situation in Southern Sudan” the spokesperson concluded.
(ST)