December 4, 2023
“I have served for more than 20 years and my salary is not big enough to buy a quintal of teff.” – Head of the Commission
By Staff Reporter
ADDIS ABABA – (BORKENA) – The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission submitted a question to the parliament, citing the fact that more than 25 percent of the workers resigned in one year complaining that the salary they were paid at the commission was insufficient to withstand the high cost of living.
The Commission said this while presenting the quarterly plan execution to the Standing Committee of the House of Representatives on Thursday, 30 November 2023. The Commission said that the workers, hired to help in the anti-corruption fight, were leaving their jobs because they could not lead life with poor salary payment in a situation where cost of living was high, according to a report disseminated by the Amharic Weekly, the Reporter.
Chief Executive Officer of the Commission Tesfaye Shamebo, said that 50 employees resigned within the three months of the new Ethiopian Fiscal Year, 2016 (2023). The high turnover is the serious stumbling block of the Commission, according to the CEO. While the responsibility given to the Commission is of great and national importance, employees are regularly resigning due to the low salary payment, Tesfaye said.
The CEO said that he has served at the Commission for 21 years, but the salary he is being paid is not big enough to purchase a quintal of teff. “I will have to borrow the money if I need to buy 100 kilograms of teff, ” the CEO voiced his grievances to the House of Peoples Representatives.
Therefore, the CEO, Tesfaye Shamebo said that it would be very difficult for a person who is paid such an amount of salary to fight against corruption in a free, independent and stable manner.
The Ethics and Anti-corruption Commission has an annual budget of 62 billion birr for the 2016 Ethiopian Fiscal Year, and 25 million birr is used for salaries, and the rest is for anti-corruption operations.