Lakes state minister confirms 5% salary deduction
August 2, 2014 (JUBA) – The labour and public service ministry in South Sudan’s Lakes state has officially acknowledged imposing a 5% salary cut on staff who boycotted last month’s airport cleaning exercise.
“It [the circular] was very clear to everybody,” said Deng.
“I [later] came to realise in my ministry and the same in other institutions that there were few civil servants who sabotaged and opted not to go to the airport for the work communicated to them,” added the minister.
Deng said a committee had been immediately instituted to probe the incident. Only three, out of 21 staff, were reportedly affected in the process.
“Three (3) were those staff members who left their jobs for a long time without asking permission from the administration as a normal procedure used in civil service,” the labour ministry said.
However, she said it was within her ministerial mandate to impose such administrative measures, warning against staff absenteeism from work.
“I could not get the reason as to why some of these employees were absenting themselves from their duties while receiving government salaries,” said the labour minister.
“I was enforcing discipline in my ministry because most of civil servants do not accomplish their duties and we must find ways of disciplining the civil servants to do their work,” she added.
(ST)