Responding this week to appeals by Lao schoolteachers who have gone unpaid for months, Lao Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith ordered that teachers receive their salaries on time, threatening to punish officials found blocking or diverting their pay.
“From now on, no one is allowed to use funds budgeted for teachers’ salaries for other purposes,” Thongloun told a meeting of the Southeast Asian country’s National Assembly on Oct. 31.
“Teachers must be paid each month,” he said.
“Anyone found taking money budgeted for teachers’ pay, either by delaying it or by not paying it at all, will be punished,” Thongloun said.
“We will handle the problem of salary payments, and will make the payments each month,” finance minister Somdy Douangdy told the National Assembly in an earlier meeting on Oct. 26.
“In particular, we will make an effort to normalize salary payments in 2017, and will avoid these delays of two to three months.”
Teachers’ and lower-ranking government workers’ salaries are often paid late in Laos, especially in the country’s provinces, where local officials sometimes divert funds for use as loans made to private businesses, sources say.
'Hard to live on this'
“Teachers in my district have not received pay for October,” a teacher in Luang Namtha province’s Sing district told RFA’s Lao Service on Nov. 3.
“Friends of mine who teach in Namtha district were paid only one million kip [U.S.$122.49] in September, which is not full pay, and they have received nothing at all for October,” she said.
“It is hard for us to live on this,” she added. “All we can do is borrow money at an interest rate of eight percent per month if our salaries come in late.”
About 510 teachers work in Sing district, with over 80,000 teachers working throughout Laos itself, according to statistics provided by the Ministry of Education and Sports.
“In principle, teachers must be paid on time, and this is the responsibility of the Ministry of Finance,” deputy minister of education and sports Kongsy Sengmany told RFA on Nov. 3.
“But officials in the education and sports sectors must give the Ministry a summary of salary payments, and these are sometimes late, which delays payment,” he said.
The pay of about 500 teachers working in Champassak province’s Soukhouma district was meanwhile resumed this month after salaries had not been paid since August, sources said.
'So much corruption'
Speaking to RFA, one district education official said that he trusts the prime minister’s commitment to guaranteeing prompt payment of salaries, adding, “But many people are concerned about this issue and worry that it may happen again.”
“State workers are not paid on time because there is so much corruption in projects that go uninspected,” a finance official working in the prime minister’s office said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
“And sometimes accountants and finance officers delay payments in order to make some profit,” he said.
Reported by RFA’s Lao Service. Translated by Ounkeo Souksavanh. Written in English by Richard Finney.
Dear all, your comments below bring tears to my eyes. However hard I try I still can't believe how a government - in this case Lao government - can be so cruel to their own people. You know what? At the same time their children attend very expensive western private schools such as Australian, American or UK...
Feb 13, 2017 02:52 PM
Students are the back bones of the country and teachers are their tour guides who will lead them there. The corrupted government officials are worse than the drugs dealers who robbed the future of the younger generations and the future of Laos.
[This comment has been edited by RFA Editorial staff per our Terms of Use]
Jan 24, 2017 09:45 AM
Lao people need to take their Country back from these Communist thieves that's selling the country out for their own personal gains and enrichment. Until that happens, the Lao people will keep suffering.
Nov 09, 2016 05:59 PM
Lao communists are just a bunch of crooks and phonies. Go look at their economic indexes and forecasts : annual GDP growth was announced to have averaged 7-8%, income per capita will increase so beautifully and the lao population will be out of poverty by 2020 - these sounds more like hallucinations...Reality is lao work force is unemployed, those that are employed have not been paid and those that have been paid can hardly feed their families...
Nov 07, 2016 06:47 PM
My Brother inlaw who works at a Government Disabilty department and is disabled himself has not been paid since June. This is pathetic. Of all people the disabled is in need more than any other people. He doesn't asks questions about his pay as he is too scared of losing his job as its already hard enough for the disabled to find a job. The new head of government sound good but its the older heads who has been in same position that won't change their ways so corruption will always stay.
Nov 06, 2016 09:06 PM
