February 17th 2019 (Nyamilepedia) – South Sudan’s main armed opposition group, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement in Opposition (SPLM-IO) led by teh country’s former First Vice-President Dr. Riek Machar slammed the government on Sunday over plan to cut salaries of public servant to fund peace implementation.
Last week, government spokesman and Information Minister Michael Makuei Lueth announced that the government will cut one-day salary from public employees for four months to fund the ongoing peace process.
However, a report by the London-based Guardian said also last week that the government is using funds allocated for peace implementation to renovate houses of senior governement officials including that of the First Vice-President Taban Deng Gai. This is when the government continues to call the international community to mobilize Money for peace implementation.
In a statement issued on Tuesday, the Chairperson of National Committee for Information and Public Relations Mabior Garang de’Mabior said the annoucement by the government amount to lack of seriousness to implement the agreement.
“This not only exposes the regime’s lack of seriousness with regards to peace, but it is an open mockery to our civil population’s intelligence, who have yearned for so long for peace and prosperity, it is a mockery to the intelligentsia of our Republic,” he said in a statement issued on Sunday.
“This is a mockery, considering the problem of “Chapter I” (salaries of public servants), as we all know, workers are not paid on time as the situation currently stands, with government workers going more than six months without salaries and many of our foreign missions facing eviction,” Mabior added in the statement extended to the Nyamilepedia.
Mabior further added that the government plan to cut salaries is not justified as the nation expect the full resumption of oil production in Unity state’s Tharjath or else where in teh country which he said will increase the government income.
