A call has been made to the Liberian Senate to consider an increment in civil servants’ salaries in the pending national budget.
On Tuesday December 21, 2021, the House of Representative passed the national budget in the tone of over US$700 million but the Senate tabled the budget as it was not passed up to it closure for its annual break on Tuesday December 21, 2021.
However, the president of the Civil Servant Association of Liberia (CSAL), Moibah K. Johnson, is appealing to the Liberian Senate to ensure that there is an upward adjustment in government workers’ salaries before concurring with the House of Representation noting that the current take-home salaries of civil servants is meager and cannot fully cater to the needs of their families.
Mr. Johnson indicated that since the harmonization of government workers’ salaries through a national government policy coupled with the drastic depreciation of the United Stated Dollar to the Liberian Dollar as 80% of civil servants salaries are paid in United Stated Dollar, civil servants purchasing power has immensely reduced thus posing economic constraints on them.
He stressed that as the pending 2022 national budget climbs to over US$700 million it was about time civil servants also benefit from the ‘national cake’ to improve their livelihood in a drive to make President Weah’s promise of giving civil servants living wages a reality.