MASSIVE SALARY INCREMENT AT FINANCE MINISTRY
…MINISTER, FS IMPLICATED IN SHADY APPROVAL
By Ibrahim Alusine Kamara (Kamalo)
A concerned citizen of Sierra Leone has sent a formal petition to President Julius Maada Bio, copying the Right Honourable Speaker of Parliament, Secretary to the President, Secretary to the Vice President, Head of the Civil Service and Secretary to the Cabinet, Chairman, Public Service Commission, and the Chaiman, Wages and Compensation Commission.The petition is against the salary disparities and collusion within the Ministry of Finance and the Accountant General’s Department, setting in dispiritedness among civil servants.The concerned citizen suggests the urgent need for equity, transparency, and accountability in the Sierra Leone’s Civil Service, noting that the unjustifiable salary disparity within the civil and public service, allegedly engineered by senior officials in the Ministry of Finance (PFM-A1), the Accountant General’s Department (PFM-A2), and selected
professional heads, is rapidly eroding trust in civil service leadership and governance.
The petition came following credible information of a payroll analysis that unearthed a new, highly inflated salary structure, said to be quietly designed and
implemented exclusively for staff classified under Public Financial Management (PFM), including Procurement Officers, Budget Officers, and Internal Auditors from the Ministry of Finance (MoF), the Ministry of Planning and Economic Development(MoPED), and the National Monitoring and Evaluation Department (NaMED), leaving out their counterparts in accounting, administration, legal services, and GEN-MDAs.
“This change, reportedly undertaken without the knowledge or approval of the Wages and Compensation Commission (WCC), the Human Resource Management Office (HRMO), or the Public Service Commission (PSC), violates established protocols and the Public Financial Management Regulations of 2018,” according to the concerned citizen.
The state of affairs is said to have resulted in an alarming and unjustifiable pay gap among civil servants on equivalent grades, a practice being petitioned for defying the principles of fairness, meritocracy, and national cohesion.
Relying on internal sources, the petitioner alleges that senior PMF-A2 officials crafted a new, PFM-exclusive salary structure with drastically increased rates, a proposal submitted directly to the Minister of Finance and approved without consulting legally mandated institutions.
“The changes were selectively implemented, benefitting staff from MoF, MoPED, and NaMED, while leaving out the Administrative Cadre, Law Officers’ Department, and other MDAs; Staff performing comparable duties on the same grade now earn 2 to 5 times less simply because of where they work, not because of differences in responsibility, qualification, or seniority,” the petioner suggests.
As it is being alleged based on verified recent payroll figures, the basic salary for Grade 8, 9
PFM Staff, for instance, is Le45,553, Le51,160, while that of GEN-MDA Staff is Le11,050, Le13,890 – a disparity of Le34,503, Le37,270. Meaning PFM staff earn salaries over four times more than their peers of the same Grade and qualifications. An equivalent Grade 9 officer outside PFM earns only 27% of
their PFM counterparts in 10.
According to the concerned citizen, the disparity more than doubles the national minimum monthly wage.
Salary structure analysis is that PFM-A1 staff make over 2 times what others earn at Grade 11, while PMF-A2 staff at Grade 11 make more than 5 times the salary of GEN-MDA, and PFM-A1 nearly doubles the salary at GEN-MDA. Again, PFM-A1 staff enjoy nearly 2 times pay advantage, PFM-A2 staff earns over 5 times. For PFM-A1’s Grade 14 officers, they earn more than double the basic
salary of their peers. This scale is normally reserved for top bureaucrats, but it still
undercuts PFM-A1’s rate.
The concerned citizen considers the overall discrepancy as shocking, and undermines seniority and national grading structure. These figures show that PFM roles, especially those at the PFM-A2, have been elevated to elite financial enclaves, detached from the civil service national grading system.
“The resulting gaps are not merit-based, nor do they reflect differences in responsibility or risk.
Instead, what is evident is a systemic manipulation of salary structures to benefit a privileged few, with little or no regard for institutional fairness or national budgetary integrity.”
The implications of the “egregious” disparity, according to the petitioner, are demoralisation of the Civil Service, where public officers across MDAs, especially those in the Administrative Cadre and professional sectors, feel devalued and marginalised, thus undermining productivity and national unity; institutional breakdown, as the blatant disregard for WCC, HRMO, and PSC compromises their legitimacy and authority, rendering them ceremonial in matters of serious consequence.
Other implications are fiscal recklessness, corruption by design, which if not checked, will amount to elite state capture,where those tasked with protecting public funds are the ones disproportionately benefiting from them.
Given the severity of these revelations, however, the petitioner requests that an independent and transparent investigation be launched into the processes, and individuals involved in the approval of these salaries; the PFM-specific salary structure be suspended immediately pending formal review by the WCC and HRMO; a comprehensive audit of all salary changes made since the WCC’s inception be undertaken; a clear directive from the President be issued reaffirming that no MDA may revise salaries independently of the WCC and PSC; the government restores a harmonised and fair national salary structure that respects grade, experience, and contribution, regardless of ministry or department.
President Bio is, therefore, reminded that the civil service is the beating heart of the state machinery, and that when some people are treated as more valuable than others for no justifiable reason, the fabric of national service is torn apart.
“l am confident that your commitment to good governance, equality, and reform will lead to a timely and just resolution. We
must uphold a public service that is fair, disciplined, and cohesive, for the good of all Sierra Leoneans,” the petitioner concluded.