The Ministry of Finance and Planning on Thursday announced that it is in the process of introducing a finance identity card for paying salaries to civil servants and organized forces.

According to the state-owned South Sudan Broadcasting Cooperation, Finance Minister Dr. Bak Barnaba Chol said the introduction of the Finance ID aims to wipe out ghost employees from the government payroll.

The minister blamed the delay in the payment of the salaries of government employees on the process of cleaning payrolls and producing the new identification cards.

According to Dr. Barnaba, the civil servants and organized forces have accumulated four months’ salary arrears and he promised to pay September and October 2023 Salaries this month.  

“We will produce a financial ID for all the organized forces and civil servants when they are receiving their salaries,” he stated. “This financial ID will be used to identify our entire workforce and create a database so that we are sure that we are paying the real people that are working for the government.”

Dr. Barnaba added: “When we paid July salaries through the committees, we discovered a lot of ghosts in both the organized forces and civil service and we are continuing the same exercise so that this month when we are paying September salaries, we are sure our payrolls are clean so that we continue paying salaries on time without delay.”

For his part, Changkuoth Bichiok Reth, the chairperson of the Committee on Finance and Economic Planning at the Transitional National Legislative Assembly (TNLA), said the committee questioned the finance minister about delays in salary payments.

He said the committee also reviewed the House’s directives 46 and 47 on opening of accounts for infrastructure development funds and for proceeds from 20,000 barrels of crude oil a day for roads, to ensure timely clearance of contractors’ bills and timely completion of road projects. 

“We had a good discussion and the finance minister promised us that he is ready and he is doing all the best through all the mechanisms and that he will be paying the salary arrears this January. He will pay some two months and also the other payments will continue” Bichiok said.  “We also discussed several other issues, especially the operationalization of some the offices and some of the departments necessary for real reforms that should happen.”

“The Public Procurement and Disposal of Assets Authority also needs to be expedited so that they do their work accordingly because this is where most of the government procurement is done” he stressed.