Public servants in South Sudan are currently facing a gloomy period following months of unpaid salaries as the government says it has run out of funds with income from oil exports allocated to servicing the country’s growing loans until 2027.

A statement from the office of the country’s Finance Minister, Agak Achuil on Tuesday said the affected workers, mostly government employees including members of the security forces, doctors and nurses,
have been demanding their salary arrears for months now but there was little the government can do about their plight.

“The reason why we are not paying the arrears is that the oil money is going towards the payment of loans which have been taken before and paying for some of the priorities of the government,” Achuil told reporters in Juba, the country’s capital.

“Where am I going to get the money if the oil has been sold in advance up to 2027?” He added when squeezed to give a timeline when the salary arrears will be paid.

Civil servants in the war ravaged country were last paid their salaries in November and December of 2021 and have not received their salaries for the first four months of 2022.

The Sudanese government depends on oil proceeds to pay salaries and finance other development projects as the internally generated revenue resources are not enough to support government expenditure.

However, the government has borrowed heavily against the country’s oil exports and in 2019, agreed to allocate 10,000 barrels of crude oil per day as payment to Chinese firms building roads in the country.

The government was heavily criticised in 2018 when it gave each of the country’s 400 legislators a $40,000 loan to buy personal cars in a country where most government employees live in relative poverty with medical workers among the least paid, as most nurses and midwives earn under $100 per month.

Some government critics have also accused it of taking corrupt loans as many are finalized without parliamentary approval.

“These loans are very corrupt because there (are) lots of money being exchanged under the table.

“This is why money of five years is already spent,” Peter B. Ajak, an economist who previously worked for the government said.