‘No excuses for wage delays,’ Speaker Nunu tells Finance Minister

Author: Koang Pal Chang | Published: 58 minutes in the past

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

Speaker Jemma Nunu Kumba urged the Finance and Planning Minister to not use the pending parliamentary approval of the 2024-2025 nationwide funds as an excuse for delaying the cost of wage arrears.

Right Honourable Nunu made this assertion after Minister Marial Dongrin knowledgeable lawmakers that civil servants’ salaries would solely be paid after the funds was authorised by parliament.

This alternate occurred throughout the presentation of the 2024-2025 National Budget, which was moved to the third studying stage on Tuesday, November 5.

Minister Dongrin mentioned the Ministry is working to make sure authorities worker salaries within the new funds 12 months are paid each month.

He added that the ministry can also be searching for the approval of the August home to clear the wage arrears, relying on the supply of cash.

“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,” mentioned 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 mentioned.

“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 said.

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

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

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

“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 mentioned.

The Speaker additional added that the general public believes that the parliament is taking all of the funds, but the report of the fiancé committee exhibits that the parliament has been underfunded.

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