By Bida Elly David
National minister of finance and economic planning announced, working towards releasing one-month salaries for public civil servants and organized forces.
Amidst an ongoing economic crisis, civil servants and the organized forces are marking seven months, after September, last year’s pay.
Speaking to journalists at the ministry premises on Thursday, Minister Awow Daniel Chuang stated that they are going to avail themselves of October salaries, and then others will follow suit.
“We are going to get some money so that at least we can pay the civil servants and the organized forces so that at least they get their salaries,” Awow said.
But Minister Awow failed to mention the exact date for starting to pay out the announced October salaries, only saying it would commence in the coming days.
“The payment will be for October; the last month that was paid was September; if we are paying, it will be the payment for October moving forward,” he noted.
Furthermore, the finance minister underscored that all payment checks have already been submitted to the bank for the cash transaction to be done.
“We have already started; the checks have already been sent to the bank, and as soon as the money is withdrawn, payment will start. As I said, it is going to be within these days,” he stated.
Eng. Awow said the government will identify any quick source of funding to ensure that payments within these days are made.
He expressed that the Ministry of Finance is very concerned about the ongoing economic turmoil affecting the citizens, saying it will stop in a few months.
He noted that the economy is worsening due to an ongoing crisis in Sudan that has resulted in threats to oil production, which goes to the international market through the Port Sudan pipeline.
Awow acknowledged that South Sudan is indeed at a risky economic juncture, saying that in the event of a total shutdown of oil production, the government will resort to other avenues to stabilize the economy.
“Even if the shutting of the oil happens or doesn’t happen, we need to work very hard for us to have a sustainable economy; we cannot depend on oil; it will help us,” Awow said
“Even if we have oil, we even have a deficit, so when we put some of these into production, it will multiply and reach the gap in the budget that we used to have,” he added.
Furthermore, he also quantified that another solution for the government to rescue the suffocating economy in the event of an oil shutdown is to boost agricultural production.
“As a government, we want to work this year to make sure that we open up other avenues for production. If we put in the little resources we have, it will multiply; the cycle of agriculture is from five to six months maximum, and with a quick impact, we will have enough,” he projected.
Minister Awow also mentioned the injection of more money into the foreign exchange market to curb the hard currency shortage in the market.
“Within the coming days, we will be injecting some money because the market has been thirsty for a long time since there has been enough hard currency in the market, and that is why everyone wants hard currency, especially those buying the currency for their families as well as for traders buying goods,” he noted.
He concluded that the Ministry of Finance, in collaboration with the Ministry of Trade and the National Revenue Authority, is working towards filling the commodity gaps by importing more food.