Last week, the Minister of Information, Michael Makuei Lueth enlightened us on what happened when civil servants received their salaries at the improved scale.
Ministers and Lawmakers were exempted since being constitutional post-holders; their emolument bears a different arrangement.
According to the information minister, the National Emolument Act has to be enacted first in order to address the benefits of the constitutional post-holders.
He alluded that amending the National Emolument Act for the constitutional post holders and the legislators is in process.
Possibly, adjustment of remunerations for constitutional post holders will come in a supplementary budget with civil servants remaining 200 % Salary increment.
At that time, decision-makers must take precautions to accept technical guidance from the minister of finance and other experts in considering mathematics.
When the national parliament approved the 2023-024 fiscal year budget, with a 400 % salary increment instead of 600 %, there was a political commotion in the house, which was a healthy undertaking.
However, national Minister of Finance, Dr. Bak Barnaba Chol, prophetically predicted economic tremble after the increment, which later came to pass.
Dr. Bak favored a 400 percent increment for civil servant salaries over an earlier proposal of 600 percent that some of the lawmakers had wanted.
The minister’s position was to maintain the 400 percent increment to mitigate inflation and avoid price volatility in markets.
As Dr. Bak predicted, at the time civil servant received their salaries, there was a market shock. The local currency dropped low against the US Dollar in the black market as commodity prices shot up with salary increments.
Assembly Speaker Jemma Nunu Kumba had instructed the finance minister to submit a supplementary budget within 5 months for the remaining salary increment, this when implemented, could come with another economic eruption.
But, for market and economic stability in the country, lawmakers should heed the guidance of the finance minister to avoid boomerang, which bites the consumer.