According to a statement made public on Thursday, the government of Guinea-Bissau has mandated the suspension of teachers’ salaries in order to filter out false payroll claims from fictional employees.
The tiny West African nation, whose education sector salaries are mostly funded by foreign aid, has declared war on ghost civil officials in an effort to reduce its salary cost.
The country’s Council of Ministers ordered the education ministry to conduct a census of its workforce in a decision that was made on July 18 and made public on Thursday.
Around 8,000 primary and secondary school teachers in the nation who make an average of 50,000 CFA francs ($86) per month would be impacted by the decision. A teacher threatened to take legal action after the ruling.
The International Monetary Fund claims that the government of Guinea Bissau missed three of its eight economic reform targets that were due in March despite reaching a staff-level agreement for a $3.16 million extended credit facility for Guinea Bissau in May. The setting of a pay ceiling was one of the unfulfilled goals.
The National Union of Teachers in Bissau, chaired by Domingos de Carvalho, announced that the union will challenge the judgment, which it deemed to be unfair.
“We are not planning any strike action, but we are thinking of finding other effective ways of reacting,” de Carvalho said.
The country has a population of 2.1 million people has a literacy rate of 56 percent.
