By Agoth Abraham

AWEIL, 11 September 2016 [Gurtong] -In an open letter addressed to the Director of the National Bureau of Statistics in former Northern Bahr el Ghazal, it outlines delayed wages and the leadership not following the terms of references stipulated in the contracts.

“We the team of HFSSS would like to request your office to consider the following conditions.
High Frequency Survey started on 24 November2014 when we had already signed contracts worth 3,000 SSP per week and additional field allowances, but implementation has become an issue. Some lump sum amount of money was not paid as a commitment made by NBS.” The letter reads in part.

“HFSSS is a national project funded by World Bank and field teams are awarded with open contracts, but yet commitment to respect the contracts’ contents is always an issue. Some months accumulate with payment while the survey is always completed on time. We also experience discrimination from NBS –Juba by sending salaries to three States of Equatoria and send our salaries for Greater Bahr el Gahzal to Northern Bahr el Ghazal NBS Director’s Account.” The letter further reads.

The letter also reminds the management that the upcoming survey expected to happen in the whole country in 2016 will only be done when the money stipulated in the contracts is paid out to the field staff in full before the work begins and when the new remunerations are increased from 3,000 SSP to 4,000 SSP per week.

Several attempts made to contact the accused management of NBS to respond on the allegations, was unsuccessful.

The National Bureau of Statistics is a government mandated institution that carries out statistics on the country’s economy, household surveys, census and many other demographical statistics in South Sudan with a 5-year funding from the World Bank.