The Gambia government has now given till end of this month, October, for civil servants from grade 2 and above the ultimatum of opening salary accounts or risk losing their salaries.
In March this year, the government through the directorate of the National Treasury, under the Ministry of Finance, urged all civil servants, from grade 2 and above, within the Greater Banjul Area to open salary accounts through which their salaries can be paid.
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| People in a banking hall |
The latest announcement from the national treasury says civil servants “who have not provided their bank accounts [should endeavour] to do so before the 31st of October 2011 failing which their salaries will not be paid with effects from 1st November 2011”.
However, since the announcement was made, many civil servants have expressed mixed concerns about the directive. While some say the new development will give rise to congestion of banking halls and delay in receiving salaries, as lots of employees would swarm the banks at the end of each month to collect their salaries; on the other hand, others believe the new scheme would give them access to loans to better develop themselves.
Fabakary Kujabi, a grade 4 salary earner, expressed dissatisfaction with the directive, saying that apart from the hours they will spend at the bank waiting to receive their salaries, their take-home pay will suffer charge cuts and deductions that can be unbearable. “Really I am not encouraged by the whole system,” he remarked.
