Civil servant wage row hampers rural recovery

Nurses and doctors are refusing to return to work in the Liberian countryside because their salaries are too small and often late and the transitional government's promise to pay 18-months of salary arrears has failed to materialise. "The government cannot force us to go into the interior and work, because in the end, we will have nothing to live on," Klomah Seblee, president of the National Health Workers Association told IRIN. "We have families whose needs we have to meet." Seblee says health sector workers typically earn a government wage of between 10 and 20 US dollars a month. But a 50 kg sack of rice -- the national staple -- costs at least 22 dollars and sometimes as much as 30 dollars. The pay dispute is hampering efforts to restore basic services to more remote corners of Liberia, which is set to hold its first post-war elections in October. A report earlier this week from Medecins Sans Frontieres included Liberia among the top 10 underreported humanitarian stories and warned that the population was still living in a state of crisis more than a year after the civil war ended. The 14 years of on-off conflict finally drew to a close in August 2003, when Liberia's former president Charles Taylor fled into exile in Nigeria, paving the way for a broad-based transitional government. But MSF said healthcare had shown little improvement. "Healthcare, already scarce in the main cities, hardly exists at all in the remote areas of the country," Medecins Sans Frontieres said. "Today, there are only 30 Liberian physicians working in a country of more than 3 million people." It is not just the health system. The Civil Servant Association of Liberia, which counts teachers and bureaucrats among its 65,000 members, is also up in arms. "The previous government... owed civil servants up to 18 months of wage arrears. This government assured us that they would pay the debt that it inherited. But up to now, we still have not received our money," said the association's president Jefferson Elliot. "Worst of all, the minimal pay we receive from this government is not even paid on time!" continued Elliot, who led a peaceful sit-in in front of the finance ministry this week. A senior government official told IRIN that limited resources were hampering the state's ability to act. "We inherited a huge debt from the previous government and we took office at a time when the national coffers were almost empty," he said "This government has a lot of demands from so many sectors like water, road rehabilitation, payment of international arrears among others and our small budget cannot cover all those demands." However, independent observers say the government's priorities are skewed. A UN panel of experts on mission to Liberia, released a report in December that accused the government of misdirecting its allocated funds. "The National Transitional Government has misplaced priorities in the budget, allocating 52 percent of funds for personnel expenditure and 15 percent for the security sector - at a time when UNMIL is primarily responsible for national security - instead of making allocations for health, education, water and roads," the panel reported. It also noted that the government has been spending, but not producing accounts to detail where the money has gone. "The National Transitional Government has not prepared the accounts for the previous two budgets... [and] there were large variations between the purpose for which amounts were sanctioned by the National Assembly and the purpose for which the funds were actually spent," the panel's report said. For civil servants like Seblee, the government's handling of public finances rankles. He thinks health workers should be paid incentives in US dollars like government ministers and parliamentarians. Treasury insiders say that members of the power sharing government receive an allowance of up to US$ 1,000 a month in addition to their approved salaries. Seblee wants them to tighten their own belts and raise health sector wages so medical staff can get back to work. "We know the government can afford the money - they bought expensive cars for themselves! Our people's lives are seriously at risk while government officials in Monrovia live in luxury!" Seblee complained. The head of the transitional government, Chairman Gyude Bryant, has publicly confirmed an allocation of US$ 1 million to purchase bullet-proof jeeps, despite inheriting a fleet of similar vehicles from the Taylor regime. And Treasury sources have told IRIN that US$6 million has been spent on Cherokee jeeps and Daimler Chrysler cars for members of the transitional government. Charles Bennie is a former member of the interim government who says his dismissal at the end of 2004 was because he criticised government spending. "I was in a strategic position handling government revenues generation... I know those who are clothed with the responsibility of expending funds are not directing it to areas that would benefit the ordinary people," Bennie , a former rebel for the Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy, told IRIN. Bryant, a former businessman, has repeatedly defended his government against accusations of corruption. However, this week he announced he would set up a task force to identify corrupt government officials and practices. Human rights advocates, religious leaders, political party representatives and lawyers will sit on the committee and the United States, Liberia's historic ally, has dispatched a team of financial experts to Liberia to assist. John Blaney, the US ambassador to Liberia, told reporters that the US team would be posted to the Liberian finance ministry, the central bank and the budget bureau. Bryant has also promised audits of the government's revenue-generating agencies, like the petroleum refinery and the national port authority. He said the report would be expected shortly.