State employees are to receive their salaries for March, the Presidency Council has decreed. This would seem to duplicate the Council’s instruction six days ago that while all government bank accounts would be frozen, salaries should nevertheless be paid.
Moreover, in an apparent effort to exert a tight control on state finances, the PC’s newly-formed finance committee is to review all promissory notes issued by ministries and state institutions and will henceforth approve all new notes.
The instruction to pay March salaries may bring a rueful smile from many state employees, not least teachers, whose salaries have frequently gone unpaid. There is evidence to suggest that some government workers are already owed several months’ pay. In addition, the continuing shortage of banknotes means that people whose state salaries are paid directly into their bank accounts, are still likely to face limits on the amount of cash that they can withdraw at any one time.
By Libya Herald reporters.
