The grant supports the emergency project in response to the country’s situation of conflict and violence.
Going by a release posted on the website of the World Bank, Executive Directors of the Bank have approved a total of US$10 million (about FCFA 6 billion) in new financing to re-establish an operational government payroll and related financial management systems damaged after years of civil war in Central African Republic (CAR).
The release, re-echoed by other news agencies, notably Africatimes, notes that the additional financing grant in the form of an International Development Association (IDA) “supports the Emergency Public Services Response Project, designed as a quick response in CAR’s situation of conflict and violence.”
The original project, it is said, achieved highly positive results, including helping more than 70 per cent of teachers, health workers, and civil servants from the revenue-generating directorates who resumed work “CAR has stabilised somewhat since the civil war, but equilibrium remains fragile and needs to be sustained until elections happen, security improves, and recovery picks up,” Gregor Binkert, World Bank Country Director for the Central African Republic, is quoted as saying.
“During this sensitive transition, assuring the payment of salaries to public servants is critical to maintain gains in core government functions, and the delivery of education, health care and other basic services that support the country’s many poor families and contribute to peace in CAR,” he noted.
The release observes that the additional financing will maintain and scale up the achievements of the original project such as improving control over the payroll process by implementing a system that integrates human resources and payroll payments. The financing will also help to reduce the time elapsed between planned pay day and actual pay day, continue to support the return of teachers and health workers who have resumed work in the districts where security has improved, and remove from the payroll as many as 1,400 “ghost” civil servants who are deceased or have retired.
