PARAMARIBO, Suriname, CMC – The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has urged the Surinamese government to implement a more effective social protection program.
Speaking during a press conference on Wednesday, IMF representative Anastasia Guscina said civil service must also be streamlined more quickly and efficiently so that civil servants can be paid higher salaries.
Recently, an IMF delegation has been in Suriname, meeting with the government and other stakeholders about the status of the economic recovery plan being implemented with financial support from the fund.
According to Guscina, since the implementation of the economic recovery program plan supported by the IMF began in December 2021, the government should have done much more to compensate groups hit hard by the measures financially.
“That is why next year, conditions will be created so that the government will have more room in the budget to respond to the needs of this part of the population. We will target a slightly lower primary balance next year. It’s important to spend money on social protection. And this is one area where the results have been disappointing. Social protection should never have been an afterthought”, Guscina said.
“When the IMF recommended the removal of fuel subsidies, phasing out electricity subsidies, and other measures on the one hand, at the same time, there was supposed to be support for the population in terms of social protection programs. I don’t know if people realize, but this is the area where the fund asked the government to spend more. It is a very different line item compared to all the others. In others, we say, ‘Let’s consolidate’. This one we say ‘let’s spend more’. This is where there has been some underperformance”.
She argued that underperformance and efforts should be stepped up to meet the targets for the end year and also to make sure that the money reaches the right people and that the value of those payments is maintained by inflation.
The international lending agency also asked for more transparency on social protection spending; based on this, the Ministry of Social Affairs should publish on its website how many households in each district received the payments so that there is also accountability to the public and also explain on the website who is eligible, the IMF representative noticed.
The IMF also sees the low salaries for civil servants as a problem.
” We have also discussed wages, and our opinion is that the public sector salaries are scandalously low. It is not right that the teacher has to rely on tutoring to make ends meet and that their wage has been degraded with inflation to such extent. One of the program’s conditions is to eliminate ghost workers. Eighteen percent of the public workforce is not registered in the system, and the population should demand change and accountability.
It is a waste, and it’s also demoralizing because if you were in the public service, and you’re working hard, and you know that a bunch of people are receiving money for doing nothing, that is not right, and it is outright theft. And, let’s call things as they are. You should not feel sorry for those people”, Guscina noted, arguing that if the government can eliminate ghost workers, there will be more space for proper wage increases.
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