Lakes state suspends payment of civil servants through banks

May 15, 2015 (RUMBEK) – Authorities in South Sudan’s Lakes state have suspended payment of civil servants’ salaries in banks, saying all wages be directly paid through the ministry finance departments.

The new directive comes in the wake of a recent decision by the labour and public service ministry to set up a payment committee, which civil servants opposed, claiming it was instituted on tribal lines.

The committee’s task was to screen all ghost names from ministry payrolls and generally manage payment of salaries.

This prompted the public service minister, Achol Abil Aguek to suspend the committee and immediately ordered that salaries of all civil servants be paid through their respective finance departments.

Isaac Chol, the director general in the labour ministry, supported the minister’s directive.

“Nobody will be allowed to sign salary on behalf of colleagues. No bank payment. Everyone employed in the ministry will be paid through the finance directorate,” he said.

It is still unclear how civil servants will react to the labour ministry’s new directive.

Since South Sudan’s independence in 2011, Lakes state has been blighted by cattle raiding and continues to be locked in a cycle of inter-clan clashes and revenge killings.

(ST)