The project coordinator and the project beneficiary institutions expressed that the unpaid salaries of some of the CIM staff were a main concern dating back to August of 2018 due to a budget deficit. Whilst at most institutions, the CIM staff did get paid in the months of October, November and December of 2018, there were no explanations given to those who were unpaid while others were paid.
With a cloud hanging over their heads, the CIM recruited staff were weary of what the future will look like for the CIM, which off course is damaging to the overall morale.
The project has already seen a high turnover where 25 people recently resigned and this number may increase if this is not sustained. The current remaining number of CIM staff now in service is 133 of which 117 are ‘stream A’ civil servants while 16 are ‘stream B’ (advisers).
Since recruitment of the CIM staff completely stopped in the second quarter of last year 2018, this affected the ministry of Labor as well as the office of the Prime Minister in particular, as they did not get the technical staff that would have otherwise been recruited due to the CIM budget deficit notification from the RCRF project that was supposed to support the CIM staff in the period between 2015 to 2020.
On further remarks, after having seen the budget allocation projections for the CIM recruited staff by the RCRF project in the period between 2019 to 2021, the CIP project coordinator has emphasized this by raising the question of CIM staff sustainability which is now becoming a greater concern and needs to be addressed.
During a recent meeting with the project leading members, the proposed CIM wage bill and finance options suggested by the World Bank were discussed. The PS added that the government did not anticipate this deficit and was under the belief the budget for the CIM staff would be there. Therefore, senior leadership of the government are in the process of sharing the outcome on how to sustain the overall wage bill of the country.
On the other hand, the Bank’s Task Team Leader mentioned that the Bank is looking forward to receive the decision on the wage bill with the government’s preferred option on how to deal with the over extension, where the RCRF project only allocates for $ 2.6m, the government needs to add to that to sustain the CIM staff for the 2019 budget.