The leadership of the Academic Staff Association of the University of Sierra Leone (ASA-USL) on Thursday, February 16, 2023, met with the leadership of Ministry of Finance at Treasury Building George Street, Freetown.
ASA-USL President, Dr. Abdul Karim Mbawa told the Minister of Finance, Mr. Sheku A. Fantamadi Bangura and his deputy Mr. Kalokoh that the purpose of the meeting was to inform them about some very pertinent issues affecting staff welfare which should be timely and amicably addressed as a way of ensuring effective service delivery in the university.
Dr. Mbawa reported the challenges noted from a recent meetings ASA-USL held with the administration of the University, Tertiary Education Commission (TEC) and the Ministry of Technical and Higher Education (MTHE), and therefore urged the leadership of the Ministry Finance to strategically intervene to ensure quality service delivery.
The major issues he put forward were the payment of staff members who are not on the Accountant General’s payroll, the payment of the 20% salary allowance by the University administration, the payment of new salary scales for all staff promoted since 2020 to date.
In view of the constraints, the President of ASA-USL requested the Minister to:
1. transfer every staff member of USL to the Accountant
General’s payroll with immediate effect. This is as a result of the regular
constraint of the University administration to pay those who are not on the
payroll of the Account General.
2. The payment of new salary scales for all staff promoted since
2020 should take effect immediately. This is crucial because all staff
promoted to various ranks since 2020 are yet to receive the salary scales for
the ranks to which they have been promoted. This is demotivating.
3. To ensure 100% payment of staff salaries by the Accountant General’s
Department with immediate effect. This is as a result of the perpetual delay
in paying the 20% allowance by the University administration.
4. The replacement of staff that are deceased and those who have
retired should be done without delay in order to ensure quality service
delivery.
Minister of Finance, Mr. Bangura appreciated the strategic approach used by ASA
Executive to facilitate dialogue with the government to address these genuine
concerns. He said there had been meetings with MTHE and the Vice
President to ensure the payment of grant-in-aid and subvention to public universities so that some of these issues could be addressed without delay.
He further requested for relevant data concerning those staff who are not on
the Accountant General’s payroll, the number of staff promoted since 2020,
and the salary required for the new ranks, the outstanding payment of
subvention and grant-in-aid. The Financial Secretary told the Minister the amount of the outstanding payment for grant-in-aid for all public universities.
“We need goodwill actions to soften the ground. This is top priority,” Minister of Finance remarked after listening to the Financial Secretary.
The Deputy Minister said that it is not possible now to migrate 100% of staff members to the Account General’s payroll because of budgetary constraint.
“Their salary is not part of the current budget, but the Ministry is working on
mechanisms to ensure regular and prompt payment of all staff members across public universities,” Mr. Kalokoh said. He also said that the Ministry is going to make part payment of outstanding grant-in-aid next week in order to enhance smooth operations of all public universities. The Ministry isalso going to ensure the payment of all the staff promoted since 2020 upon receiving the necessary data from the University.
The Minister told ASA that they will be meeting with the Minister of MTHE,
Professor Alpha Wurie to expedite the payment of grant-in-aid and
subvention to all public universities. They don’t want any hiccup since this
academic year is very short, and elections are in the corner. He appealed to
ASA-USL to exercise patience while they collaborate with all stakeholders to
ensure that their concerns are amicably addressed.
The Minister commended the leadership of University of Sierra Leone. “The Vice Chancellor and Principal of University of Sierra Leone, Professor Foday Sahr is regularly pushing to see that they pay grant-in-aid and subvention,” Mr. Bangura remarked. He said that they will continue collaborating and working with ASA-USL to promote academic excellence.
BY PRO-ASA-USL, Dr. Tonya Musa