A mission from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) arrived in Guinea Bissau to analyze, along with the authorities, the salary bill of the Public Administration and the total number of public employees, including teachers, the Guinean Finance Ministry announced today.
According to the statement, sent to the press, the IMF technical mission will analyze “salary sheets, the results of the census of public administration employees” and “know the total number of teachers in Guinea-Bissau, from primary education,” through secondary and higher education.
“It is in this context that the IMF mission has scheduled meetings with technicians and senior officials from several national institutions, namely the ministries of Finance, Public Administration, National Education, the Interior, Health, Justice and Human Rights, and the Court of Auditors,” the statement noted.
The Finance Ministry also indicated that the technical mission would discuss the “employment issue” with the Ministry of Public Administration, specifically the “legal framework for hiring, dismissals, promotions, as well as the remuneration of civil servants and the process of negotiating salaries.
The International Monetary Fund announced in June that it would soon resume financial assistance to Guinea-Bissau under the Extended Credit Facility and stressed in the Article IV consultations that sustainable fiscal management is a “priority” and that fiscal consolidation should continue in 2022 to “contain the high risk” of increasing public debt.
In April, the IMF estimated that economic growth in Guinea-Bissau had accelerated to 5 percent, but the outlook for 2022 is “more uncertain” due to price increases caused by the war in Ukraine.