Commissioners of Sierra Leone’s Independent Media Commission (IMC) have disclosed to the press that they have not been paid for the past eight months.

The aggrieved commissioners, who sources said are mostly university lecturers, revealed to Nightwatch that the government had stated that since they are university lecturers, to avoid paying them twice as government employees, they will be paid their full salary as commissioner. However, these lecturers are receiving 50 per cent of their pay from the Ministry of Finance and the other 50 per cent at the university, making them not a full time government paid.

Sources told the newspaper that because most of the commissioners are university lecturers, the Ministry of Finance informed them that they will not be receiving their expected salaries from the two government institutions, adding that they instead decided to pay them per sitting fee at the commission.

“The Ministry of Finance had initially suggested for the IMC to pay us from their subvention. But the ministry is in violation of the IMC act as only parliament can suggest or recommend the commissioners’ pay. But that is not fair as the subvention is not meant for this purpose and it is very small. With four out of the five commissioners being lecturers, because they have not been receiving pay, they don’t show up for work or meetings,” sources told Nightwatch.

They said they are unable to enforce violation of the sitting laws as the commissioners have not been receiving their salaries cum sitting fees, asking, “who would want to sanction another person for not showing up to meetings they are not being paid for?”

According to Nightwatch, the aggrieved and surprised members of the Independent Media Commission said they were only paid between four and five times the whole of last year, adding that for the past eight months they are yet to be paid which they said have greatly affected their work at the commission including media monitoring, which forms a major part of their work.

Sources told the newspaper that the government’s reason for not paying them their full lecturer and commissioner salaries is wrong, adding that the university lecturers were not being paid by the government, that the government started paying lecturers’ salaries ‘because the university went broke and the government-intervened.

“It is not the government’s responsibility to pay lecturers. Even if it is, then we should be getting full pay for doing two jobs for the government. The problem is with the Ministry of Finance,” they said.

In closing the men said all their attempts to get their issue sorted have fallen on “deaf ears alleging that the Minister of Information does not listen to them, “he only gives instructions,” they added.