Civil servants to take pay cut as Bangui goes broke

Salaries for civil servants in the Central African Republic (CAR) will be reduced, at a rate yet to be determined, in a bid to slash state expenditure that has gone beyond the government's capacity to meet, a government minister announced on Thursday. Finance Minister Jean Pierre Lebouder said the move would not affect civil servants in lower pay categories. Currently, the highest pay category for civil servants is about 3.5 million francs CFA (US $6,776) while 17,000 francs ($32) is the lowest. Despite its huge mineral and timber resources, the CAR has failed to pay civil servants for four months. Lebouder made the announcement at a four-hour meeting called by CAR leader Francois Bozize with the country's stakeholders. Vice-President Abel Goumba, Prime Minister Celestin Gaombalet, National Transitional Council Speaker Nicolas Tiangaye and his deputies Charles Massi and Justin Ndjapou were among the senior government officials who attended the meeting held in the capital, Bangui. The UN Secretary-General’s representative to the CAR, Lamine Cisse, also attended. "The sacrifice must be proportionate with the earning of each civil servant," Lebouder said. He added that the government’s salary expenses had nearly doubled with the integration of thousands of former exiles "in the name of national unity and reconciliation". He said the administration had paid 1.8 billion francs CFA ($3.5 million) to reduce salary arrears inherited from former President Ange-Felix Patasse’s administration and was yet to clear civil servants' salary arrears amounting to three billion francs ($5.8 million). Bozize ousted Patasse on 15 March 2003. Lebouder said the meeting was held to explain to the country’s stakeholders the measure taken by the government to stabilise the country’s finances. In this regard, the government announced in February that salaries for ministers and senior parastatal officials would be reduced by 30 percent. "We have reached the bottom of the pot," Bozize said at the meeting. Lebouder said the government had reduced the number of its missions abroad and was urging all business people to conduct their financial transactions through local banks as part of its efforts to cut costs. The government's measures follow recommendations by a delegation of the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the African Development Bank that toured the country from 17 January to 1 February. The team had advised the government to decrease its expenditure, fight corruption in financial services and in the mining and timber sectors in order to increase tax revenue. Gaombalet said that since March 2003, the government had paid civil servants salaries for eight months using two billion francs ($3.88 million) from its own internal income and 11 billion francs ($21.3 million) from loans and foreign donors.