The MINFI communiqué, they say, is comforting although ends remain hard to meet.
As officials of the Ministry of Finance redouble efforts to recalculate and pay allowances not included in the salaries of civil servants for the January payout, the salary earners are striving to live with the gap created in their monthly engagements. In a tour round some banks in Yaounde yesterday, January 26, Cameroon Tribune witnessed that the government error animated group discussions as salary earners queued up to get “the reduced take home.”
Even as they remained mute when asked how much each of them takes home monthly, they were however boisterous on the amount deducted and how much it is hurting to them, their families and projects. According to Ndi Ebede Dieudonnée, “my salary is short by FCFA 25,000. None of my allowances has been paid, it is difficult and it is unbearable.” Like others, not only are the salaries too small to take them through a month, but the error is coming on the heels of a difficult month of December after people have emptied their fortunes on the end-of-year feasts and are barley managing to survive. Corroborating Mr Ndi, Lessomo Edwin whose salary reduced by FCFA 27,000, said the error was ill-timed. “I cannot meet up with my monthly engagements. You know our salaries are so small that reducing just FCFA 2,000 from one’s monthly earning plunges him into difficulties,” he said.
Like Lessomo, another victim of the error, Assene Owono Georges, lamented over what he qualified as “my inability to meet my monthly demands. It has seriously affected my engagements. Some of my projects would have to wait.” To Enama whose monthly income is short by FCFA 14,600, it is a big blow. “My family is suffering. After a difficult month, I was highly awaiting this salary to solve many problems. The way it has come is so discouraging and plunges me into more difficulties.” The story is the same for Leone whose income is short by FCFA 12,000 Nyong Joseph by FCFA 4,500, Onana Ngono by FCFA 4,000, and others with varied sums.
More pathetic are people who had taken overdrafts and loans that banks were already deducting. It was despair. According to the MINFI communiqué, which Cameroon Tribune published yesterday, efforts are on course to repair the damage. “We hope it is an error and that the damaged will be repaired in the nearest future,” Leone said.
