By Enyichukwu Enemanna
Authorities in Guinea-Bissau have ordered the suspension of teachers’ salaries to carry out an audit of staff strength and root out ghost workers that have increased the country’s wage bill, a statement released on Thursday said.
The decision will affect some 8,000 teachers in the country’s primary and secondary schools who earn on average around 50 000 CFA francs ($85) per month.
It has since attracted threat of industrial action by teachers’ union.
The West African country depends largely on external aid to meet salary obligations in the education sector.
It had declared a war on ghost civil servants in order to curb its wage bill.
An 18 July decision by the country’s council of ministers that was published on Thursday also instructed the education ministry to carry out a census of the number of its employees.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) which reached a staff level agreement for a $3.16 million extended credit facility for Guinea Bissau in May, says the Bissau government missed three of its eight economic reforms targets that were due in March.
One of the missed targets was a ceiling on wages.
Domingos de Carvalho, president of Bissau’s National Union of Teachers, said the union would appeal against the decision it called unfair.
“We are not planning any strike action, but we are thinking of finding other effective ways of reacting,” De Carvalho said.
