Some of the agencies affected by the recent budget cuts are said to be in dire straits and while their employees are on the job, they may only be able to receive their May 2012 salaries if there is some intervention between now and pay day.
So said Head of the Presidential Secretariat and Cabinet Secretary Dr. Roger Luncheon at his post-Cabinet press briefing held at the Office of the President yesterday.
Responding to questions from members of the media fraternity, Dr. Luncheon said that there has been an ongoing examination of the situation in light of the cuts made by the opposition toseveral agencies during the recent consideration of estimates in Parliament. He said that other than those who found employment elsewhere, most of the persons are on the job at those agencies, working with the expectation that they would receive their salaries at the end of the month.
“In the Office of the President, in the Rights Commissions, they are working. The agencies with one dollar [allocated to them] will be looking at between today and pay day for an intervention to give them their May month salaries,” Dr. Luncheon said.
State media
The state media suffered some of the most serious cuts at the examination of the estimates with NCN’s and GINA’s allocations being reduced to one dollar in some cases from a total proposed budgetary allocation of $211 million. As a result of the cuts, Dr. Luncheon said that the Government has embarked on engaging NCN with a view to ensuring that there is better spending and management of the operations. “This is being done because of the cuts,” Dr. Luncheon said. He added that the administration has the greatest expectations of the state media and that is the reason that the Government is not stingy when it comes to making funds available to the state media agencies. He said that the state media is given importance because of its role in the country’s development and in its dissemination of information.
