Controversy over Unified GoSS Salary

By Gai Thurbil

February 8, 2009 — First and foremost the Ministry of Public Service, Labour and Human Resources Development allocated the minimum wages of civil servants based on the cost of living in Juba, the capital of Southern Sudan. The salary structures were ascertained in many ways so as to help the Ministry propose what was good enough to sustain low income citizens. When the employees’ wages were appropriately allocated, the government passed it without any qualm.

In preparing for the 2008 budget, South Sudan vice-president, Dr. Riek Machar, called the GOSS ministries to present their budgets for the New Year before final ceiling were made by the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning. This meeting was attended by most senior civil servants, namely, the undersecretaries and director generals. It was then in that session that the equation of salaries of Legal Affairs and Constitutional Development to the judiciary was proposed.

In August last year, Madam Awut Deng, the Minister of Labour, Public service and Human Resource Development, presented a memorandum to the Southern Sudan Assembly in which she talked about unification of salary structures in the Government of Southern Sudan.

The minister argued that the bill that the assembly passed included civil service employees, army, organised forces such as the police and correctional services, various commissions and South Sudan judiciary. In addition to this, Madam Awut pointed out that the unified salary structure had repeatedly been exercised in 2006, 2007 and 2008 budget respectively.

It was expected that Madam Awut would work on conventional salary structures with minor professional allowances. This huge increment of staff members’ salaries of legal affairs and constitutional Development remained rather debatable within the Government of Southern Sudan (GOSS).

If the council of ministers passed the high salaries for the South Sudan Judiciary and Legal Affairs and Constitutional Development without serious studies, then the council’s decision would need to be revoked to allow the Ministry of Public Service to administer salary structures.

This happened after her ministry conducted painstaking investigations on salary structures in the ministries. While it was her mandate to streamline the wages for civil servants, the Ministry of Legal Affairs and Constitutional Development has developed different salary structure using Judiciary as its point of reference. As the committee submitted its findings, it became pretty clear that some ministries and commissions have more advantages than their counterparts in the same government.

Madam Awut’s point of view is that the treatment civil servants should expect from the government must be the same so that it creates a sense of competition among employees; a point that makes sense to all in the government. If the argument from the minister of legal affairs and constitutional development, Michael Makuei, was based on the fact that the new salary structure was passed by the council of ministers, then there was every reason for Madam Minister to put it right.

If the ministry of legal affairs and constitutional development violates the public service act that regulates the people’s hiring in the government departments or public corporations, then this can be dealt with separately as it requires the parliament to spell out what each every ministry is supposed to do.

In a statement presented to the House, Madam Awut wondered if the ministry of legal affairs and constitutional development could adopt a salary structure without approval from the South Sudan Assembly. It must have been taken for granted that the members of staff at the ministry of legal affairs and constitutional development are civil servants. Perhaps, this is what needs to be corrected if it is misunderstood.

If the government creates a system where some professions are preferred than other, then there will be no need to create the department of Public Service and Labour. Thus, there will also be no need to have the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning.

Then, the department of justice should be mandated to administer civil departments which will be a wrong thing to do. My understanding of the current structure is that Salva Kiir Mayardit’s administration has been running because all professionals contribute in their different capacities.

There is no person less important in nation building than the other. A footballer who uses his legs to win his daily bread is important, because in process of performing his daily routine the public normally feel entertained by him. This is the reason why the government created the Ministry of Youth, Culture and Sports.

The Minister (Awut) did all that in the ministries in accordance to her mandate in which she took the oath of office. Ethically, there is no body in the government which is allowed to earn two salaries. She explained that the Review Committee submitted a report which disclosed some malpractices in some ministries, adding that the purpose of the committee was to examine the pay-rolls to enable her ministry to supervise payment of salaries to all the employees in the ministries, commissions and public corporations respectively.

The minister mentioned that the purpose of the committee was also to ensure that the correct amount is paid to employees in accordance to their grades or ranks. The Review Committee was formed to help unearth corruption cases in the Ministries.

To begin with, the Ministry of Legal Affairs and Constitutional Development is regarded as the custodian of the laws that govern this country, and one would wonder why the body that enacts the laws would put its wages higher than that of other civil servants. It would definitely be wrong for us as a government to start that way.

The GOSS has taken a decision to fight institutional corruptions such as nepotism, eradication of ghost names and embezzlement of public funds through legal institutions. Thus, the ministry of legal affairs, South Sudan Anti-corruption Commission and South Sudan Judiciary, would help the government fight such cases.

Consequently, the salary saga between the two ministries would cause the GOSS a lot; if it would succumb to the departmental demands for salary increments. And therefore, it is an issue that needs a quick solution.

If this is not handled with care, it will cause the government to lose its fight against corruptions. It is important to know that Madam Awut sought a parliamentary solution over the salary disputes between her Ministry and the Ministry of Legal Affairs and Constitutional Development because she believes, as a minister, she must do the right thing.

Many people in Southern Sudan will agree that her struggle to streamline civil servants’ wages and benefits is to implement what the public expects of her as Minister of Public Service, Labour and Human Resource Development.

Now if Madam Awut allows each ministry to increase salaries and wages as they wish, it will be expensive for the government to run. Thus, the oil resources GOSS depends on will not be enough for the salaries leave alone the other developmental projects the government might be implementing.

Meanwhile, in a document prepared in response, to Awut’s objection over the issue, Minister Michael Makuei argues that the budget sector group ruled in favour of legal affairs; however, Madam Minister still could not agree to it as she believed in equal treatment for all citizens.

A senior official, whose name I am withholding, accused the legal institutions in this country of not helping the government, but of using the laws to their advantage. The South Sudan Anti-corruption Commission, for example, could not implement its mandate because the laws that regulate its work have not been passed by the assembly.

In contrast, Minister Makuei said there was also a general consensus to the proposal in the Council of Ministers, which was not welcomed by his colleague (Awut). The Minister repeated, in his statement, that the council of ministers approved the budget in lump sum, meaning each ministry could work the other details.

Since the formation of the Government of Southern Sudan in 2005, the Ministry of Public Service, Labour and Human Resource Development never studied wage scales of South Sudanese working with Non-Governmental Organisations to ascertain how much difference they have had with civil servants. NGOS high salary scales remain mindboggling to qualified south Sudanese as they give them opportunities to resettle in Southern Sudan.

In 2006, salary schemes in GOSS, that gave low wage structures to civil servants, would have been subject to increments in the following year’s budget. This could also be a contributing factor in GOSS employees’ demands for pay increments. The Government did not consider the fact that most ministries’ employees are people who need to be resettled because they were affected by the two the two decades of civil war. All in all, the whole issue has been referred to the South Sudan Assembly for discussion.

Gai Thurbil is a journalist based in Juba, South Sudan. He can be researched on the following e-mail address: [email protected].