All government employees were summoned to report back to work within the next 10 days by the Tigray Provisional Administration. This is the first call made since the Ethiopian National Defense Force (ENDF) left Mekelle in June 2021, which led to the collapse of the region’s civil service during the two years of war that followed.
Even though the violence has left many federal officials without a known whereabouts, the call has already been placed. Many civil servants in major towns of Tigray have been recently demanding that the new administration should pay their salary, in addition to making a call to return to work.
Seble Kahsay, commissioner of the civil service commission of the Tigray Interim Administration, stated that the newly formed administration will soon start paying workers whose two years of paychecks had been delayed by the war. However, aside from the previous three months, salaries will not be reimbursed.
In an interview with the state-run Tigray television, Seble said that the public service had urged its employees dispersed throughout the Tigray region’s zones and districts to report to their respective offices.
All employees are urged to take part in the call, but it is especially for those who have stayed at home throughout the conflict, she noted, singling out those who served in the army and those who worked for private businesses.
The Federal Government and the Tigrayan Authority made several agreements in Pretoria, one of which was the budget’s release.
According to sources in the administration, the Ministry of Finance has allocated three months of budget for the region from the 13 billion birr allotted to Tigray at the beginning of the existing fiscal year.
Following the release of the budget, State Minister of Finance Samereta Sewasew and other government representatives traveled to Tigray on April 10, 2023 to talk about the budgetary allocation for the region’s reconstruction and other initiatives.
The interim administration has been already given an instruction for all public schools in the region to resume primary and secondary education beginning from April 23, 2023.
