Following Tuesday’s mass street protest by students of the Monrovia Consolidated School System (MCSS), the CDC government says salary arrears for some 15,000 public school teachers have now been cleared.
A number of students sustained injuries in Tuesday’s protest after Liberian police used teargas and reportedly beat up students to clear them off the streets.
At a meeting on Wednesday between the Ministers of State for Presidential Affairs, Deputy Finance Minister, the National Teachers Association and the MCSS teachers, they agreed to return to classes on Thursday but had other reservations.
Here is the FULL TEXT of a Finance Ministry press release issued in Monrovia a short while ago.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(Monrovia October 17, 2019)- The Government of Liberia has brought up to date the salaries of 15,000 public school teachers with bank account numbers and unique biometric identification numbers issued by the National Identification Registry.
However, the Ministries of Finance and Development Planning and Education have been working to deliver with some 2000 personnel who do not have bank accounts and who have been paid by bulk check. Staffs at the Internal Audit Agency and at both ministries believe the bulk check system could be subject to fraud and abuse and the two ministries have been paying teachers in this category on a case by case basis, with a view to cleaning up the list and eliminate potential ghost names. Considering the current environment, the ministries have decided to use the bulk check system to bring current the salary of teachers in this category.
The Ministries of Finance and Development Planning and Education, supported by the Internal Audit Agency (IAA) along with the National Identification Registry (NIR) are working to ensure that all teachers and rural staff members of the Government of Liberia in this category open a bank account and have biometric ID numbers.
The Government will continue to use this bulk check system for October and November. All teachers and rural staff members of the Government of Liberia in this category are required to have a bank account number by end of November 2019. By this time, the Government would have eliminated all potential ghosts identified therein from the list and determined the legitimate number of teachers as well as rural staff members of the Government of Liberia who deserve to be on the public payroll.
The Government will abandon the bulk check system for the month of December 2019 and going forward, so all are teachers and rural staff members of the Government of Liberia in this category are asked to cooperate. Signed • Ministry of Finance and Development • Ministry of Education