A three-wheeled taxi on a street in Mekelle, Tigray, on Nov. 5, 2012.

Tigray’s Caretaker Administration Says Civil Servants’ Pay Will Start Wednesday and That Fuel Loaded in Djibouti Will Arrive by Friday

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A three-wheeled taxi on a street in Mekelle, Tigray, on Nov. 5, 2012

A three-wheeled taxi in Mekelle, Tigray, on Nov. 5, 2012. File photo. Photo: Bernard Gagnon / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Tigray’s federally appointed caretaker administration said on Tuesday that civil servants who have reported back to work will start receiving their salaries on Wednesday, Nov. 11, two days after the date it first set. The administration’s economy chief said on Monday that fuel loaded in Djibouti should reach the region’s towns by Friday.

Atakilti Haileselassie, who heads the administration’s public service and human resource development bureau, said on Tuesday that payments would begin the next day because efforts to start them had succeeded, The Abay Times reported. The region has more than 140,000 government employees, he said, and pay will go to those who have reported to work in person.

The administration had said on Nov. 2 that it would start paying salaries from Nov. 9. On Monday, workers and residents quoted in local reports said no salaries had been paid and no fuel had arrived, according to The Abay Times. On Oct. 23, Redae Halefom, who heads political affairs and public mobilisation in the caretaker administration, had said payment would begin within days of staff returning.

Tewodros Aregay, the administration’s chief executive for economy and reconstruction, said on Monday evening that his team had completed its preparations three or four days earlier, except that some government bureaus had turned in incomplete payrolls. He said those gaps were fixed the same day, and that employees whose payrolls had already been checked and submitted would be paid the next day, meaning Tuesday. Atakilti’s Tuesday announcement set the start for Wednesday, a day later than Tewodros had indicated. Tewodros also said more than 90 percent of employees had reported back. On whether wartime salary arrears would be paid, he said the administration was seeking salaries from the start of the 2019 E.C. budget year and that anything earlier would require a separate decision, according to The Abay Times.

Getachew Reda, who describes himself on X as an adviser minister to the prime minister on Eastern African affairs and a former president of Tigray’s interim administration, wrote on Tuesday that the caretaker administration would pay salaries and that the federal government had transferred the money almost a week earlier. He did not give a date for the payments or for fuel deliveries. He said Tigray had more than 130,000 civil servants and asked what the administration could do without first compiling who was at work, who had reported and who was, in his words, “in banditry,” adding that almost all the records that had been in the region’s workplaces had been looted “in a deliberate and planned way” (our translation from Tigrigna). “On the matter of salaries, let us wait a few days,” he wrote. Zegabi has not independently confirmed the federal transfer.

Z Medhin (@Zeate1), who gives his location as Mekelle, replied that it was “good to hear the salaries will be paid and that the federal transfer arrived almost a week ago,” but said the caretaker administration “must keep the public regularly informed about what is happening.” “People should not have to speculate or learn days later that money had already been received,” he wrote, calling for a regular public summary of how many civil servants have reported for work and when payments are expected to begin. Goyteom Gebreegziabher (@Goyteom37), who says in his bio that he is a watershed management specialist and also gives his location as Mekelle, wrote in Tigrigna that compiling the information “should not have taken more than a month” and that it was “the easiest work” (our translation). On Sunday, two days before the new dates were announced, Z Medhin had written that there was still “No fuel” and “Salaries unpaid,” 23 days after Asefa Abraha, the caretaker’s chief executive for administration and public services, took up the post. These posts have not been independently confirmed.

Fuel has been scarce in Tigray. The Abay Times reported that, in remarks published on Nov. 6, Tewodros said the administration had arranged a Djibouti fuel shipment within two or three days and was helping traders get bank loans to import it. On Monday, he said he had a letter from the Petroleum and Energy Authority permitting fuel into the region, that tankers had already loaded in Djibouti, and that he expected the fuel to reach Tigray’s towns by Friday. On Tuesday, the region’s trade and market development bureau met more than 21 current and former Mekelle filling-station owners, who told the meeting that numerous checkpoints on the Djibouti-to-Tigray road were a main reason fuel prices were rising and asked for a lasting fix, the newspaper said. Tesfay Girmay, the bureau head, said his office would address the complaints, that fuel and other essential goods brought in with foreign currency would be closely monitored to ensure they were used only as intended, and that anyone diverting fuel would be held legally responsible. He urged long-closed stations to renew their licences and reopen.

In March, the region’s previous interim administration said it could not pay the monthly salaries of about 137,000 civil servants because expected federal budget transfers had not arrived. Addis Fortune reported later that month that more than 141,000 public servants had gone unpaid after federal transfers stalled, that the region needed about 2.8 billion birr a month for salaries but generated only around 700 million locally, and that teachers and other workers described going hungry and falling behind on rent. Officials of the region’s Trade and Export Agency told the newspaper that fuel supplies had been completely halted since January, after earlier sharp cuts, with serious effects on transport, public services and health care. During the 2020-2022 war, the newspaper said, public servants had already gone unpaid for 16 months. The Ministry of Finance’s communications head, Girma Kebede, declined to comment at the time, calling the matter sensitive.

The federal government set up the six-month caretaker administration on Oct. 16 to restore services, help displaced people return and prepare regional elections, after fighting in which the Tigray People’s Liberation Front left Mekelle. The TPLF, which ran the region for years, has rejected the caretaker. Last week the army imposed a night-time vehicle curfew in Mekelle. Zegabi found no public confirmation on Tuesday from Ethiopia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs or the Ministry of Finance of the federal transfer Getachew described, and no public statement this week from the Petroleum and Energy Authority confirming the letter or the fuel shipments Tewodros described.

Sources