By Omar Bah
Staff of the Judiciary already benefiting from a D1000 ‘house to office’ allowance, increment approved and later rescinded by the government, have more than what they bargained for yesterday when they were told that the allowance will no longer be paid and worse, they will have to repay what was paid to them over the last four months.
Context
In November 2023, government approved the increment of transport and residential allowances for civil servants and under the new scheme, house to office allowance was increased from D1,500 to D2,500 and the judiciary had already started paying the increments.
But a memo from the judicial secretary Abdou Conteh, seen by The Standard yesterday addressed to the financial controller, ordered a stoppage to the payment of the additional D1000 allowance and recover the D4000 paid from January to April.
When contacted for comments on the matter, Mr Conteh said: “There is nothing to hide about that information. Yes, at the beginning of this year, there was instruction that the house to office allowance for civil servants is increased from D1500 to D2500 and the Judiciary implemented it until when we were made to understand that the decision has been rescinded. So that being the case, we should stop paying it and recover what was paid. So, in pursuit of that, I gave instruction to the account controller to stop paying and recover the allowances that were paid during the past four months from January to April, but in a manner that is not going to affect the staff. That is all.”
