The Government of Western Bahr El Ghazal has strongly condemned the statement by the national finance minister saying austerity measures did not affect the states’ financial plans.
Governor Rizik Zachariah Hassan, in a press conference on Wednesday, described the statement as a total lie and a provocation.He said Western Bahr El Ghazal get 55 percent of last year’s budget.
Western Bahr El-Ghazal state according to the 2008 census has over 333.4 thousand residents and the state got a block transfer of less than 50 million pounds.
Mr Zachariah reiterated the rejection of census results.
He said the census should not be used for block grand budget allocation, but the number of the employees, because each state government has the same administrative structure independently of its population.
The Governor of Western Bahr El Ghazal claimed that the budget reduction severely affected the unclassified staff with a cut of 30 percent off their salaries. Classified staff got a 40 percent cut.
The state government formed a committee to go to Juba in order to negotiate the budget cuts with the national government.