The Director General of the Civil Service Agency (CSA), Josiah F. Joekai has disclosed that CSA has stopped the salaries and subsequently removed from the payroll all individuals employed as of December 18, 2023.
Addressing Ministry of Information press briefing on Tuesday, March 26, 2024, Joekai said it was a violation of former President George M. Weah’s directive to suspend all new employment and service contracts across government institutions.
He said the CSA will work with all spending entities concerned to reverse all promotions and salary increments during the period of the presidential directive.
He said regarding personnel head counts conducted at the Ministry of State for Presidential Affairs, Liberia National Police and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the CSA has also blocked on their payrolls with immediate effect employees not accounted for, pending the conclusion of the verification exercises.
“The CSA has realized that several individuals on the payroll receiving pay whose personnel action notices (PAN) have not been completed in keeping with Chapter 3, section 4.4 of the Civil Service Standing Orders of 2012. You may be interested to know that several individuals were placed on the payroll through emails, matrices, and phone calls,” he noted.
He indicated that CSA is thoroughly reviewing the payroll and incomplete personnel action notices of the individuals concerned for further action.
He said these strategic reform measures in place for the immediate term and they are confident that the government will achieve significant cost savings and optimize the value derived from sanitizing the payroll and consultancy engagements, ultimately ensuring that taxpayers’ money is utilized judiciously and effectively.
“The CSA remains steadfast in its commitment to these immediate reform processes to foster a more accountable, efficient and productive civil service for all Liberians,” he said.
Meanwhile, CSA Director General said as a case study, “We reviewed the folders of 18 consultants selected, employed, remunerated and found out that none of the consultants received a contract until after 9 months into the so-called annual engagement.
He said out of 18 consultants, eight did not have a valid contract in their folders and only 12 consultants participated in a headcount exercise and remaining 6 did not show up to date.
