CMC – The Suriname government says that for the first time in the Dutch-speaking Caribbean Community (CARICOM), the number of civil servants employed will be reduced by more than 2,000.
Finance and Planning Minister Stanley Raghoebarsing’s announcement comes even as President Chandrikapersad “Chan” Santokhi said that negotiations for salary increases with trade union representatives will be held soon.
Santokhi said that, given the country’s sacrifices over the years, it is ‘time to give back.’
Last year, civil servants received a 20 percent salary increase, and SRD3,500 (One SRD=US$0.02 cents) will be added to the gross salary from this month.
Raghoebarsing, speaking at a news conference, praised the civil servants for their commitment to participating in the government’s socio-economic programs, which would have improved the current situation.
He said that although civil servants have decreased from 49,000 to 46,500 since the government came into office, the wage bill has doubled from approximately SRD600 million per year to approximately SRD1.2 billion.
The government has been ushered in the reform of the public sector for several years, and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has repeatedly urged the government to ensure the policy is implemented.
Raghoebarsing told reporters that in addition to the high wage bill, the government spent considerable amounts on subsidies, of which more than three quarters (SRD 3.9 billion) ended up in the healthcare sector via state-owned companies.
He said an agreement had been made with the Ministry of Health to invest an additional SRD 350 million in health care this year, and subsidies and other contributions to state-owned companies amounted to more than SRD5.9 billion last year.
Raghoebarsing told reporters that the government’s debt position has improved structurally and that Suriname is doing better than the IMF predicted.
He said the national debt is now at a sustainable level but warned that more work remains.
“Things are going well, but we are not there yet,” he said, adding that a significant achievement of the Santokhi government is the reduction of inflation from 65 percent in 2023 to 9.7 percent in December last year.
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