Khan Khorn wants the government to form quickly, mostly so he can receive his monthly $20 civil servant’s paycheck.
“I haven’t had a salary for more than two months,” the Oddar Meanchey province official said. “It has been difficult to provide my family with rice.”
Since the July elections, lawmakers and civil servants have repeatedly complained about late paychecks. But while parliamentarians earning about $1,000 a month recently said they were having a “hard time,” provincial officials say they are borrowing money just to eat.
“Financial people should give us our salary on time because we are not politicians,” Khan Khorn said.
An official in the Ministry of Finance, who declined to be named, said the government gives provincial officials money to pay civil servant wages a few weeks before paychecks are due.
“We already gave them the money in advance,” the ministry official said, “but we don’t know how they work in the provincial offices.”
Provincial civil servant wages should not be affected by the political deadlock, he added.
But Saing Sarin, a Pailin municipal official, said his salary was delayed because officials were having trouble with the paperwork. “I am waiting for [my salary] even though it is a small amount of money,” said Saing Sarin, who earns about $10 per month.
Another Pailin official, who asked not to be named, was furious about not being paid on time. He is too tired to go to work because he cannot afford breakfast or the gasoline for his motorbike.
“I can eat because I borrow my neighbor’s money,” he said, adding that corrupt officials are the only ones who can patiently wait for a paycheck.
“If I am a corrupt official, I can live without taking my salary from the government,” said the official, who also makes about $10 per month. “They can make big money from corrupt work.”
