PS defends delay of payment of salary to gov’t workers

Permanent Secretary of Finance and Treasury McKinnie Dentana today defended the late payment of salary of the public officers last week – saying the internal processes of the Central Bank of Solomon Islands and commercial banks had contributed to the delay.

At the same time, he stated that the government has always have secured resources to pay its workers and they had not underpaid CBSI which was blamed for the late payment of salaries.

Public officers had complained that their salaries were late at the banks as they waited for hours on Thursday with most getting their pay late on that day whilst those at ANZ received theirs on Friday morning.

Dentana was quizzed by journalists on the issue this afternoon and journalists asked him if government finances were low.

In response he said Government always have secured resources to pay its workers adding the payroll is a government priority.

Dentana said the payment was delayed for just few hours mainly due to clearance from the CBSI and the commercial banks.

He said CBSI has their own processes of clearance from instructions to the movement of funds to the commercial banks. Dentana said in addition to that, the commercial banks also have their own processes of the movement of funds.

He said he was aware that some workers received their payments early in the afternoon except for ANZ on Friday morning.

Asked if this will happen again, he said: “I don’t think so.”