North Darfur state workers furious at allowance deduction

The North Darfur Workers Union has reacted furiously to a decision by the Minister of Finance of North Darfur to deduct 50 per cent of a meal allowance from state workers’ salaries in February.

The union described the minister's decision as unacceptable and prejudiced against the workers' earnings.

The union said in a statement that it was surprised this month by the Minister of Finance circular to the employees and local authorities to implement a 50 per cent deduction of the meal allowance.

The union announced its rejection of the decision and threatened to take measures it did not name within 48 hours to preserve the gains and rights of workers in the state.

An employee from El Fasher told Radio Dabanga that the allowance deducted by the minister is allocated by the Presidency of the Republic to all workers in the country and wondered why North Darfur is an exception.

The employee said that North Darfur is still the only state that illegally deducts workers' entitlements.

Eid grants

He said that "Even the two Eid grants which the Presidency instructed paying, we do not know anything about and have not received it so far."

The Committee of Hesba (accountability) and General Ombudsman of the Sudanese Parliament said the Ministry of Finance is slow to hold accountable those involved in the attack on public money.

The committee announced summoning the Ministry of Finance to the National Assembly to question the reasons for the slowness in holding accountable the institutions and entities involved in the attack on public money

Auditor-General Tahir Abdelgayoum called for the need for coordination between the organs of the state, follow-up of the companies and reduction of the monetary exemptions that affect the economy.

Strong internal auditing

During a meeting with the Parliament's Hesba Committee, the Auditor -General renewed his call for the establishment of strong internal auditing to detect violations.

A report by the Auditor-General has earlier revealed the manipulation of the revenues of surpluses, profits and investment returns in the final account of companies and government bodies.

The report submitted earlier to the parliament, accused 15 companies and government agencies of failing to collect the revenues of their investments estimated at SDG 255 billion, including Kenana Sugar Company, the Ariab Mining company, the Agricultural Bank and the General Corporation for Geological Research.

He said that many governmental bodies and companies have no financial regulations, their terms of service are not approved and the structure of their wages is contrary to state structures.