Civil Servants Stage Go-slow Today
By Natoe Jallah & Lewis K. Glay
Forum
Monrovia, Liberia
Distributed by
The Perspective
Atlanta, Georgia
Amidst the failure to settle arrears for civil servants in the country by the NTGL, thousands of Liberians in the employ of government are said to be staging a one week “go-slow action beginning today.
According to the President of the Civil Servant Association of Liberia, Jefferson Elliott, the civil servants have agreed that if their arrears are not settled, all government agencies operating in the country will be closed until their payment is settled.
He described the action by Chairman Bryant as being “wicked to the suffering people of Liberia.” Mr. Elliott said he cannot believe what the Chairman has said that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has instructed him not to pay civil servants who have worked for some years without pay, saying, “If that happened then it is new type of colonialism being placed on the Liberians.”
Transitional Chairman Gyude Bryant has made it crystal clear that the NTGL has cancelled the payment of civil servant arrears following consultation with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Chairman Bryant broke the silence recently at the parlors of the Executive Mansion when he held a press conference to address issues of national concern.
He said initially government planned and commenced payment of civil servants arrears but according to him,” the government signed an understanding with the IMF that it would not pay any form of arrear to anybody.”
Salaries, he noted, are not the only arrears. We would address arrears and I started to pay but I had to stop.”
Chairman Bryant said predicated upon the understanding between the government and the IMF the provision that was put in the budget for civil servant arrears had to be redirected and used for more constructive and pressing things.
He denounced the notion that his administration was the same as that of former president Taylor noting that anyone who feels that way may do so.
The Chairman also refuted the UN panel of experts’ report which alleged his involvement in the misappropriation of public fund though he said he will not sue the UN.
Another situation which the Chairman addressed was what he referred to as “the dirty issue of ritualistic killings” which has recently intensified in Grand Bassa, Bong and other parts of the country.
He threatened to sign the death warrants of convicts of ritualistic killings, if the court passes judgment down on suspect so such crime.
