[Guinea-Bissau] Suspension of teachers’ salaries to weed out ghost workers

In the tiny West African country Guinea-Bissau, the government has ordered the suspension of teachers’ salaries to weed out fraudulent claims on the payroll from ghost workers, according to a statement released on Thursday, WSAU reports.

Guinea-Bissau depends largely on external aid to meet salaries in the education sector and has declared a crackdown on ghost civil servants to cut its wage bill.

A July 18 decision by the country’s Council of Ministers reportedly instructed the education ministry to carry out a census of the number of its employees, in addition to the suspension.

The decision will impact around 8,000 teachers in the country’s primary and secondary schools who are paid at an average rate of about 50,000 CFA francs ($85) per month. A teaching union responded to the news with threats of action.

In May, the International Monetary Fund reached a staff-level agreement for a $3.16 million extended credit facility for Guinea-Bissau. It reportedly said that the Bissau government had missed three of its eight economic reform targets that were due in March.

One of these was a ceiling on wages.

Domingos de Carvalho - president of Bissau’s National Union of Teachers - said the union would appeal against a decision it described as unfair.

“We are not planning any strike action, but we are thinking of finding other effective ways of reacting,” Mr de Carvalho said.

Source: WSAU

(Quote via original reporting)

In the tiny West African country Guinea-Bissau, the government has ordered the suspension of teachers’ salaries to weed out fraudulent claims on the payroll from ghost workers, according to a statement released on Thursday, WSAU reports.

Guinea-Bissau depends largely on external aid to meet salaries in the education sector and has declared a crackdown on ghost civil servants to cut its wage bill.

A July 18 decision by the country’s Council of Ministers reportedly instructed the education ministry to carry out a census of the number of its employees, in addition to the suspension.

The decision will impact around 8,000 teachers in the country’s primary and secondary schools who are paid at an average rate of about 50,000 CFA francs ($85) per month. A teaching union responded to the news with threats of action.

In May, the International Monetary Fund reached a staff-level agreement for a $3.16 million extended credit facility for Guinea-Bissau. It reportedly said that the Bissau government had missed three of its eight economic reform targets that were due in March.

One of these was a ceiling on wages.

Domingos de Carvalho - president of Bissau’s National Union of Teachers - said the union would appeal against a decision it described as unfair.

“We are not planning any strike action, but we are thinking of finding other effective ways of reacting,” Mr de Carvalho said.

Source: WSAU

(Quote via original reporting)