According to a statement that was made public on Thursday, the government of Guinea-Bissau has issued an order to temporarily suspend the payment of salaries to teachers in order to eliminate false claims on the payroll from fictional personnel. The tiny West African nation, which receives the majority of the funding necessary to cover educator salaries from outside sources, has declared war on phantom public officials in an effort to reduce its overall salary cost.
A decision made on July 18 by the country’s Council of Ministers was published on Thursday, and as part of that decision, the country’s Education Ministry was given the instruction to conduct a census of the number of its personnel. The decision will have an impact on around 8,000 teachers working in elementary and secondary schools across the country. These instructors earn an average of approximately 50,000 CFA francs ($86) each month. A teacher union has indicated that they will take action in response to the ruling. According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the government of Guinea Bissau failed to meet three of its eight economic reforms objectives that were due in March. The IMF obtained a staff-level agreement in May for an extended credit facility for Guinea Bissau in the amount of $3.16 million.
One of the goals, which was supposed to be a pay cap, was not met. Domingos de Carvalho, the president of the National Union of Teachers in Bissau, stated that the union will file an appeal against the verdict since it was perceived as being discriminatory. “We are not planning any strike action, but we are thinking of finding other effective ways to react,” de Carvalho added. “We are thinking of finding other effective ways to react.” The literacy rate in this nation is 56 percent, and the country has a total population of 2.1 million people.
