DR Congo: Batshit Crazy by Kinshasa

Radio Netherlands Worldwide reports. As this is a news story I would usually put in some comments but I have been stuffing around for so long on this it will be probably be fixed soon. New Zealand readers think Nova Pay and then be grateful we have a decent banking system even if there is a fair amount of batshit crazy around Nova Pay. It is a Google / Hamish translation and any errors are mine.

In the DRC, banking ... without bank

                                                   Photo: Radio Okapi / John Bompengo 

By Chantal Faida,  Goma

More than a year has passed since the Congolese government decided direct banking remuneration of its employees across the country. This decision continues to raise the ire of those working in rural areas where there is no bank.

Jules Alimasi is a teacher in a secondary school in Walikale. It is in a bank in Goma, 220 miles away, his salary (70,000 Congolese francs, or about 65 euros) is paid. The road is long, dilapidated and a one-way trip will cost him 30,000 francs. In Goma, he manages to stay with family, he will tell others about places to stay. Meanwhile, students must wait for him to return to complete exams and finish the school year.

A month had 36 or 40 days in some state offices

Teachers, doctors, judges, police, military, regardless of where they are stationed are now paid through the bank. The reason, according to the Prime Minister Matata Ponyo, is to keep track of the number of public personnel. Previously, salaries were paid ​​using the lists held by the public accountants who moved from the city to rural areas. But public accountants liked to inflate the number of public employees as well as delay paydays so a month had 36 or 40 days in some state offices. To avoid these scams, we changed the system: every employee must get their own salary from the bank, even if there is no bank in its locality.

But Jules Alimasi can do more. That is why he decided to join the protesters outside the office of the Provincial Minister of Education of Goma, Thursday, June 2, 2013. "The new banking system hampers our work. This consumes our time, energy and costs us. And ultimately, our salary is spent before we even return to our jobs," he goes banner in hand. "They have to wait days and days before our windows" Given the international bank credit BIAC / Goma, where a long queue of employees waiting to be paid is combined under a scorching sun, Joceline Muyembo, also a teacher, looks visibly dejected. She was brought cold water and a chair and it was with difficulty that she talks:. "It's been three days here and I'm going back and forth to the bank I had leave everything as we need my pay for my family and me. The worst part is that my name is not on the new list, because I'm new and my number is still being processed. They asked me to wait because I am a special case. Enough is enough, the state must stop taking abrupt action is inhuman, " she laments.

A banker instead explains. "We serve our customers without any discrimination Only in the case of public servants, we must first process all transfer orders and paperwork then they rush to our branches in the city before being informed if the money is available. Thus they are forced to wait days and days before we can pay out. We are not there for nothing. "

Discovery 3500 officials fictitious

A Cabinet Minister's aide in charge of education in North Kivu, Vincent M., criticizes the decision bank payments."Every day, we manage complaints from public servants , as well as marches and demonstrations by them, especially those based in rural areas where there are no financial institutions. We sent Kinshasa a report about the situation regarding pay in the province of North Kivu and we hope that a solution will be found shortly. The error that the Prime Minister has made is to generalize the payroll system through the bank without consulting relevant government agencies on workability of this decision. "

In May 2013, during a press conference in Kinshasa, the Congolese Prime Minister had welcomed the benefits of the new payroll system. Including the discovery of 3500 fictitious public servants throughout the Congolese territory, saving 5 million U.S. dollars.

For trade unions, organizations of human rights and some opposition political parties, the unilateral decision of the government must be modified or corrected to prevent inequality between urban and rural workers. Change, yes, but under certain conditions.