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| toubab1020 |
Posted - 22 Jul 2022 : 20:57:51
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https://standard.gm/gambia-news/will-the-new-pay-system-take-effect-this-month/
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By Lamin Cham on July 21st 2022
With only a few days to go before salaries are paid by the Gambia government, there have been increased interest and enquiries all over as to whether the much-promised new grading and pay system will take effect as promised. The Gambia government announced it will introduce a new grading system with a significant upward revision of salaries to commensurate with increasing cost of living.
According to the government, the new system will start this month, July.
However, with salaries due next week, and palpable lack of excitement in government circles, civil servants and the public at large have begun to show signs of worry.
The Standard yesterday contacted three senior officials, one at the Personnel Management Office and the other two from the Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs about the state of the new grading system. All officials spoke to us on condition of anonymity.
According to the PMO official, the human resource component of the work on the new grading system, which was under the PMO, has been completed and everything is now at the Ministry of Finance.
”In other words, all what is required from the PMO on the matter have been done and what is left is now in the domain of the Ministry of Finance,” our PMO source said.
The first official we contacted at the Ministry of Finance said as far as his office is concerned, there is no changes on the planned introduction of the new grading system.
”The Gambia Government has approved the new grading and pay system and were working on that exactly and up to now, there have been no changes or directives to the contrary. So as far as my office is concerned, we are not aware of any changes,” our source said.
A second source at the finance ministry however sounded a cautionary note:
”It will definitely happen because there is full government commitment to ensure it. But I want to be cautious about when because there is still some degree of processing to be done. For example, the new grading and pay system has not been budgeted in the current budget and I am not sure there is any funds for a supplementary appropriation bill. This means if it happens, the current budget will have to be revised to cater for this new pay system from now on to the next budget next year. And again, all these must go to the National Assembly, the only authorising body for any government expenditures. So, can all these be done in a week’s time? I don’t want to sound cynical but there is some food for thought here,” our source said.
A retired former finance officer said the government will have to deal with other bodies like the IMF to be able to afford this new pay system.
“Government may be fully committed to and desirous of such a move but it will not be easy, to be honest, knowing the current economic situation,” he noted. |
| 4 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| Momodou |
Posted - 29 Jul 2022 : 18:52:35
NAMS PASSED REVISED BUDGET, BARROW TO EARN D331,000 PER MONTH
NAMs have approved a D76,000 addition to President Barrow's already whopping 255,000 monthly salary.
The revised budget, which was passed yesterday, sought a 30 percent increment in civil servants' salaries across the board.
Meanwhile, with the passing of the revised budget, cabinet ministers whose salaries stand at D50,000 are also set to earn D15,000 more, which means they will now have a D65,000 monthly salary.
However, many people say it is a discriminative budget as high-income earners like the President and his ministers will earn more compared to low-grade earners like teachers and nurses.
Source: TFN |
| toubab1020 |
Posted - 29 Jul 2022 : 16:07:07
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SNIPPET:
"“As a result, the 30% increment in salaries is estimated to generate a personal income tax of D222.5 million in the remaining six months of the year.
Regarding the expenditure policies , the Finance minister said the 30% basic salary increase only covers civil servants (ministries and departments) as well as subvention hospitals under the Ministry of Health and subvention schools under the Ministry o Basic and Secondary Education.
He stated that the general salary increase of 30% on basic salaries excludes pensioners as pensions increased by 100% in 2018."
++++++++++
https://thepoint.gm/africa/gambia/headlines/revised-budget-approved-with-30-salary-increment
July 29, 2022, 11:05 AM | Article By: Abdoulie Nyockeh
Legislators of the National Assembly on Thursday at the first extra ordinary session in the 2022 Legislative Year approved the Revised 2022 Budget tabled by the minister of Finance and Economic Affairs, Seedy Keita.
The 2022 Revised Budget includes 30% salary-increment for the civil servants.
According to Finance minster, the 30% increment in salaries is estimated to generate a personal income tax of D222.5 million in the remaining six months of the year.
The submission of the revised budget is premised on several budgetary issues including the downward revision of total revenue amounting to D3.3 billion (11% reduction of the approved 2022 budget); the reduction of expenditure of D1.2 billion from domestic debt service and cuts from MDAs (3.4% of the approved budget).
The funding of salary increment amounting to D575 million and the creation of two new ministries (Ministry of Commission and Digital Economy and the Ministry of Public Service, Administrative Reforms, Policy Coordination and Delivery) also formed the factor of the bill.
In his introductory remarks, the finance minister said as both the domestic and global economies began to recover from the effect of the coronavirus pandemic in 2022, the Russia Ukraine war brought about a dramatic shift in the global economic condition characterised by heightened supply side constraints, higher food and energy prices fuelling inflationary pressures across the globe.
He said the resulting effect is the growing poor performance of domestic resources mobilisation, affecting oil related taxes as well putting increasing pressures on governance spending needs. These effects together with the creation of additional two new ministries and the decision of government to increase the salary of civil servants necessitated the revision of the approved 2022 budget to accommodate these changes.
The finance minister further explained the rational underpinning the revised budget, saying that the government has taken a decision to revise the approved 2022 budget due to the four factors mentioned above.
He stated that the global economic shocks resulted in the non-realisation of more than 11% of the revenue budget. To ameliorate that, he said, the government decided to reduce other charges and interest on domestic debt to contain the impact of the revenue reduction and to be able to accommodate the increase in salary of the civil service and a revised remuneration package for cabinet members.
He said overall, this has increased the personnel cost by D575.8 million. He added that the increase is applicable to certain public institutions that use the civil service Integrated Pay Scale.
He explained that to finance this salary increment, government decided to embark on expenditure cuts across MDAs. These cuts affected other Current by D76.3 million, capital expenditure by D116.3 million, and debt Service by D415 million.
According to the finance minister, on revenues, there is general decline in revenues and grants, the continuous subsidy on petroleum products to the tune of nearly D1.0 billion for the first six months of the year affected the revenue performance for oil related products.
He also stated that Budget supports grants has been revised downwards due to the non-materialisation of budget support from the EU and AFDB for a combined amount of US$30 million (about D1.5billion.
He added that for non-tax revenue, US$ 30 million has been revised downward following the non- realisation of this revenue from the petroleum sector receipts. The sum of these three revenue items resulted in the overall reduction of D3.277 billion in the revenue budget.
Regarding revenue and expenditure, the finance minister stated that total revenue and grants for the revised 2022 fiscal year is projected to reach D26.6 billion, about 11 percent decline compared to the approved 2022 budget. He said the decline in the revised budget is mostly on account of poor performance tax, non-tax and budget support grants.
He stated that the lower performance in non-tax revenue of D1.47 billion, “is mostly relating to lower than programmed non-tax revenue from the petroleum sector for 2022.” He added that the project grants are projected to remain unchanged at D9.66 billion, whilst programme grants are estimated to decline to D1.1 billion in the revised budget compared to D2.6 billion per the approved 2022 budget. He said this downward revision is explained primarily by the D1.6 billion expected in budget support from EU and AFDB. As a result, the Finance minister said, 2022 revised budget only factors “budget support to the tune of D1.1 billion from the World Bank.”
He also stated that the revised budget would include immediate revenue measures which would help address the increase in the wage bill resulting from the 30% salary increment. “As a result, the 30% increment in salaries is estimated to generate a personal income tax of D222.5 million in the remaining six months of the year.
Regarding the expenditure policies , the Finance minister said the 30% basic salary increase only covers civil servants (ministries and departments) as well as subvention hospitals under the Ministry of Health and subvention schools under the Ministry o Basic and Secondary Education.
He stated that the general salary increase of 30% on basic salaries excludes pensioners as pensions increased by 100% in 2018.
quote:
Originally posted by toubab1020
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https://standard.gm/gambia-news/sabally-tells-govt-to-scrap-salary-increment-and-apologise-to-civil-servants/
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By Omar Bah on JULY 27th 2022
Momodou Sabally, a former director of budget, has urged the government to swallow its pride, scrap the salary increment plans and apologise to civil servants because it is unsustainable.
Last year, the government announced it will introduce a new grading system and pay scale with a significant upward revision of salaries to commensurate with increasing cost of living starting this July.
The news was welcomed by the civil servants, majority of who are below the poverty line.
The delay created fears in the civil service who were eagerly waiting to have a glance of what would be added to their salaries.
The government has however restored hope after it was announced that the National Assembly will convene an extraordinary session tomorrow to consider an emergency proposal to increase salaries for civil servants as part of the revised 2022 budget.
But speaking to The Standard yesterday, Sabally, a former Secretary General, said: “The only way out of this macroeconomic quagmire is to scrap the whole project and apologize to the public service. Anything short of that will only create further macroeconomic instability and dysfunctionality of the civil service. The macroeconomic consequences are quite obvious in terms of its inflationary impact and a net worsening of public welfare.
The move is not only unsustainable; it is clearly counterintuitive and grossly disingenuous.”
The former GRTS boss said whilst he acknowledged the need for sustainable pay rise, he has always differed with the Barrow administration’s “irrational exuberance” when it comes to salary increases that are not backed with sustainable and clearly defined additional sources of revenue.
“To be fair to the current Finance Minister, he inherited this bad situation from his predecessor who made this promise and had to back track to announce delayed implementation to July due to a clear lack of resources,” Sabally said.
He said the current plans to cut down “other charges” in the budget to finance the salary increase within a highly tight budget constraint is “tantamount to taking away resources that are to be used for government staff to function in their offices and adding it to their pay; thereby rendering the staff redundant because they cannot perform their function as the already limited resources classed in the budget under ‘other charges’ are used to raise their pay”.
“I think the government had good intentions to increase salaries; but due to poor planning, they need to eat the humble pie and admit that they cannot fulfil their promise due to obvious macroeconomic constraints.
“So, the government got it wrong at the get go when they made the announcement of a salary increase without identifying and detailing additional sources of revenue to finance the obvious rise in budgetary expenditure this would create. A government that is living on borrowed funds and confronted with unsustainable public debt has no business increasing its expenditure in a troubled global economic framework,” he added.
Sabally said he had also warned the government in an open letter addressed to the then Finance Minister, Mambury Njie in 2018 about their planned 50 percent salary increment.
“Government went ahead with their decision and consequently the Finance Ministry hiked up excise taxes on beverages to the effect that our trademark world renowned Banjul Breweries had to close shop and lay off hundreds of staff. The move further helped to get the economy into a wage-spiral to the high level of double digit reaching 11.7% as at end June 2022; unprecedented during the past 20 years,” he argued.
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| Momodou |
Posted - 27 Jul 2022 : 15:34:07
Related Topis: FIRST EXTRA-ORDINARY SESSION IN THE 2022 LEGISLATIVE YEAR - https://www.gambia.dk/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=18294 |
| toubab1020 |
Posted - 27 Jul 2022 : 13:18:59
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https://standard.gm/gambia-news/sabally-tells-govt-to-scrap-salary-increment-and-apologise-to-civil-servants/
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By Omar Bah on JULY 27th 2022
Momodou Sabally, a former director of budget, has urged the government to swallow its pride, scrap the salary increment plans and apologise to civil servants because it is unsustainable.
Last year, the government announced it will introduce a new grading system and pay scale with a significant upward revision of salaries to commensurate with increasing cost of living starting this July.
The news was welcomed by the civil servants, majority of who are below the poverty line.
The delay created fears in the civil service who were eagerly waiting to have a glance of what would be added to their salaries.
The government has however restored hope after it was announced that the National Assembly will convene an extraordinary session tomorrow to consider an emergency proposal to increase salaries for civil servants as part of the revised 2022 budget.
But speaking to The Standard yesterday, Sabally, a former Secretary General, said: “The only way out of this macroeconomic quagmire is to scrap the whole project and apologize to the public service. Anything short of that will only create further macroeconomic instability and dysfunctionality of the civil service. The macroeconomic consequences are quite obvious in terms of its inflationary impact and a net worsening of public welfare.
The move is not only unsustainable; it is clearly counterintuitive and grossly disingenuous.”
The former GRTS boss said whilst he acknowledged the need for sustainable pay rise, he has always differed with the Barrow administration’s “irrational exuberance” when it comes to salary increases that are not backed with sustainable and clearly defined additional sources of revenue.
“To be fair to the current Finance Minister, he inherited this bad situation from his predecessor who made this promise and had to back track to announce delayed implementation to July due to a clear lack of resources,” Sabally said.
He said the current plans to cut down “other charges” in the budget to finance the salary increase within a highly tight budget constraint is “tantamount to taking away resources that are to be used for government staff to function in their offices and adding it to their pay; thereby rendering the staff redundant because they cannot perform their function as the already limited resources classed in the budget under ‘other charges’ are used to raise their pay”.
“I think the government had good intentions to increase salaries; but due to poor planning, they need to eat the humble pie and admit that they cannot fulfil their promise due to obvious macroeconomic constraints.
“So, the government got it wrong at the get go when they made the announcement of a salary increase without identifying and detailing additional sources of revenue to finance the obvious rise in budgetary expenditure this would create. A government that is living on borrowed funds and confronted with unsustainable public debt has no business increasing its expenditure in a troubled global economic framework,” he added.
Sabally said he had also warned the government in an open letter addressed to the then Finance Minister, Mambury Njie in 2018 about their planned 50 percent salary increment.
“Government went ahead with their decision and consequently the Finance Ministry hiked up excise taxes on beverages to the effect that our trademark world renowned Banjul Breweries had to close shop and lay off hundreds of staff. The move further helped to get the economy into a wage-spiral to the high level of double digit reaching 11.7% as at end June 2022; unprecedented during the past 20 years,” he argued. |
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