Finance Minister Marial Dongrin presents budget ceiling to Speaker Nunu Kumba|Courtesy

Speaker Jemma Nunu Kumba urged the Finance and Planning Minister not to use the pending parliamentary approval of the 2024-2025 national budget as an excuse for delaying the payment of salary arrears.

Right Honourable Nunu made this statement after Minister Marial Dongrin informed lawmakers that civil servants’ salaries would only be paid after the budget was approved by parliament.

This exchange occurred during the presentation of the 2024-2025 National Budget, which was moved to the third reading stage on Tuesday, November 5.

Minister Dongrin said the Ministry is working to ensure government employee salaries in the new budget year are paid every month.

He added that the ministry is also looking for the approval of the August house to clear the salary arrears, depending on the availability of money.

“We are paying current salaries and that is what are working to look to pay every month, as we look including the approval from this house to settle the arrears we will then agree once we have got the approval and the money we would be paying,” said Dongrin.

“We have a plan, for example, we can pay the current month of November by the end of November, if we have the money with your approval,” he said.

“We can first pay the November salary which is current, and we can pay some months or one month and these two can be separated,” he stated.

The Speaker of the National Legislative Assembly urged the Finance Minister not to use parliamentary approval as the cause of delay in paying civil servants.

“You [Minister] don’t need to wait for us to approve the payment of arrears of civil servants,” Nunu told the Finance Minister during the budget presentation.

“You need to plan to clear the salary arrears of everybody, it shouldn’t be an excuse that the parliament is the one that doesn’t approve the arrears of salaries,” she stated.

“The parliament want the arrears of the salaries to be paid, the people want their salaries, they want their salary arrears and their salaries,” she said.

The Speaker further added that the public believes that the parliament is taking all the budget, yet the report of the fiancé committee shows that the parliament has been underfunded.

“The perception out there has been that the parliament is the one taking all the money,” stated Nunu.

“It is good we had a public hearing here where members of the public came and saw from the report that the parliament is underfunded, contrary to what is being perceived out there,” said the Speaker.

“Some people deceived the public that the cause of the problem is the parliament on the contrary, the parliament stood for the people,” she said.