George Paul Buya, Chairperson of the Workers Trade Union. (-)

South Sudan Workers’ Trade Union Federation has termed the payment of salaries to civil servants through a committee as ineffective, an argument countered by a finance ministry official.

According to the Union, the National Ministry of Finance is now paying government workers through a committee, which moves to states to pay them.

George Paul Buya said this is not effective because it takes a long time for all government employees receive their salaries on time.

“The committee is not up to date, even there are so many complaints from the states, about eight states, they called me,” Paul told Eye Radio’s Sundown show on Thursday.

“Even in Central Equatoria, their problem is that sometimes there is delay in payment, they almost take one month. They are paying in one state. Then what about counties? They have to go to the counties also, it takes a long time.”

He said if the Finance Ministry still deems the committee method necessary, it should increase the committee to cover all counties and speed up payment of civil servants.

“They should increase the committee, the ones for counties to be separate from the ministries in the states. Then it will allow people to receive their salary soon.”

On her part, Antoneit Benjamin Bubu, the Union information secretary also criticized the committee and called on the national government to find a speedier way of paying civil servants.

“The committee was not going fast, these are big ministries, such as education, health, agriculture, those big ministries for example like education, it can take like 15 to 20 days.”

“On the other hand, there are some counties that are far like Raja, Wau, Jur River and others, there are salary will take long to reach.”

In response, John Garang Awan, the Director General for Sectoral Planning at the national Ministry of Finance and Planning, John Garang Awan insists payment through the committees ensure that no one receives on behalf of someone else.

“Payment using the committee is effective way of cleansing the payroll, I would not agree with the fact that the committees are not effective because paying through the committee help you identify,” Garang said.

“A committee is a composition of different people from different agencies, so it is not like one ministry.”

In January 2024, President Salva Kiir directed the Ministry of Finance and Planning, and that of Public Service to implement a national payment system, in what is seen as a bid to combat corruption by eliminating ghost names.

Kiir ordered the screening of employee pay sheets, production financial identification cards and other necessary measures.

The Head of State Kiir also authorized the Ministry of Finance to establish an independence committee to verify and investigate all the national claims and propose ways of paying those claims.