Team set up to oversee census of civil servants

The Central African Republic (CAR) government has established a commission to control its civil service's salary expenditure and oversee a census of all government workers, government-owned Radio Centrafrique reported on Wednesday. Comprising officials from the prime minister's office and the ministries of public service, finance, interior, education, health, water and forestry, and agriculture, the commission will identify civil servants who have died, those who abandoned their posts and those who are no longer in senior positions. Its report is expected in August. The formation of the commission follows a recent announcement by Prime Minister Abel Goumba that there were many "ghost" workers in the administration and that some civil servants were getting more than one salary. He added that salaries for dead civil servants were still being paid in some instances. On 1 May, a director of the prime minister's cabinet, Marcel Djimasse, told IRIN that the government could save 500-600 million francs CFA (about US $1 million) on salary expenses each month, if such abnormalities were eradicated. After taking power in a coup on 15 March, former army chief of staff Francois Bozize appointed Goumba prime minister and promised that his government would pay civil servants monthly. The civil servants had accumulated 32 months of salary arrears during the administration of former President Ange-Felix Patasse. The government has promised to pay the salary arrears when the country's economy improves. Meanwhile, a commission has been set up by the mining minister, Sylvain Ndoutingaye, to draft the government's new mining policy. It comprises officials from the mining ministry, representatives of businessmen and other associations and cooperative societies dealing with mineral resources, as well as officials from the UN Peace Building office in the CAR (BONUCA). Speaking on Radio Centrafrique on Wednesday, Ndoutingaye said the commission would make "resolutions and pragmatic recommendations, which will serve as guidelines for the orientation of the government's general policy in that sector". The CAR has diamonds, gold and unexploited uranium and oil deposits. The government has suspended mining in the country and started judicial investigations into mining companies' fiscal situation. The government has withdrawn exploration licences for two companies belonging to Patasse. Mining is the second largest revenue-generating sector for the government after timber.