In a standardized manner, the government of President Joseph N. Boakai has begun paying off supplementary employees of the Ministry of State who were laid off recently.
The payment of the 700 employees, whom government said their presence overwhelmed the ministry, is on-going at the Samuel Kanyon Doe Sports Complex in Paynesville.
They were employed by the Coalition for Democratic Change administration that lost to the Unity Party government in the 2023 general and presidential elections. According to the Joseph Boakai-led government, the presence of the 700 employees who were on government’s supplementary payroll for the past six years overcrowded the ministry. They were not punctual on the job and were not properly employed as it relates to the civil service regulation.
According to the Presidential Press Secretary, Kula Fofana, who spoke to a bevy of Executive Mansion reporters on Monday, the dismissed employees, whose service at the Ministry of State ended on March 31, 2024, should have been paid off for January, February and March, but for humanitarian sake the government is paying them off for three and a half-months, covering April, which indicates a special package. Fofana said that a vetting team has been set up to verify the supplementary employees before they are paid off.
“The vetting team is verifying how they were employed, and their I.D. cards,” Press Secretary Kula said. She added that not every one of the 700 former employees would take pay because some of their I.D. cards conflicted with the names they received their salaries on during the previous government, and some do not know where they belong.
“Some of them got to know their real salary from the on-going payoff exercise at the Sports Complex. Maybe someone was taking it on their behalf, curtailing their real salary and giving them half, like US$60.00. But actually some of them do not know the actual salary they made in the previous administration—until the on-going payoff exercise that has revealed it,” Fofana said.
In a related development, the Presidential Press Secretary, Kula Fofana, stated that the President will inform the public about the 100-day deliverables, adding that the President is concerned about all Liberians’ wellbeing and transforming the people lives to the next level.