The government settled on a 400 per cent salary increment for the civil servants and organised forces when the current budget was passed back in July.
Although it took a while to implement, yesterday the SSPDF sent its message of appreciation to the commander-in-chief, President Kiir, for staying faithful to his word.
The Presidential Press Unit noted the message from the soldiers was delivered by the Minister of Defence and Veteran Affairs, Chol Thon Balok, who handed it to President Salva Kiir yesterday.
“Defence Minister Chol Thon Balok handed the message of appreciation from the Military Headquarters to the Commander-in-Chief, General Salva Kiir Mayardit, on Thursday, thanking him for the improvement in the living wages of the soldiers,” PPU noted.
According to Mr Balok, the soldiers are currently receiving their wages in all their areas of deployment. He said this will encourage the officers to remain faithful to their duty.
In August, the national legislative assembly passed the SSP2 trillion budget for the financial year 2023-2024 with a 400 per cent increment in salaries and wages of civil servants and organised forces.
In a separate interview with the City Review, the Spokesperson of the South Sudan People’s Defence Forces (SSPDF), Maj. Gen. Lul Ruai, said that the increment meant that a private soldier would receive SSP39,000 up from the initial SSP13,000.
However, the salary increment was contested in Parliament, with a section of lawmakers, particularly from the SPLM-IO, arguing that the raise margin was minimal as they rooted for a 600 per cent raise on previous salaries.
According to SPLM-IO, the government has enough resources to pay the money and it would only require reallocating money from insignificant projects to plug the gap in the shortage without passing a supplementary budget.
But the Minister of Finance and Planning, Bak Barnaba, differed with this idea on the day the legislators passed the 400 per cent, arguing the budgetary policy would not allow such an astronomical increase. He promised to push it to 600 per cent in six months.
In November 2022, the Vice Chancellor of the University of Juba, Prof. John Akech, warned against an imbalanced wage structure that he said could demoralise the workforce.
Prof. Akech said well-paid civil servants, the employment of international best practises, and the improvement of the working environment are paramount to building strong institutions.
“Lowly-paid civil servants mean the destruction of public sectors,’’ he said.
He stressed that the country risks collapsing if there are no international best practises that define conducive working environments and policies that will allow the public sector to grow and attract investment.
South Sudan is an oil-dependent country whose economy has been affected by the protracted civil war, global shocks, and corruption, resulting in irregularly low wages and the majority of qualified human resources either resigning or joining other private institutions.
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