Catholic Bishops in DR Congo Dispute Alleged Role in Delayed Teachers Pay

CENCO had undertaken to pay salaries through Caritas within 7 days of receipt of funds, he said.

“Unfortunately, the Congolese government has not honored its commitments,” he said, and added, “To date, it has not paid the bank charges, to the extent that the account now shows a debit of 21 billion Congolese francs.”

“What's more, the Ministry of Finance has unilaterally reduced deployment costs to 4 percent, and currently to 3 percent, while in most of the territories entrusted to Caritas for payment, roads have deteriorated beyond description and mobility is becoming more expensive,” the CENCO Secretary General said.

He said, “Late delivery of listings by the payroll department, late receipt of funds, late execution of transfer orders by Equity Bank in DRC, and the lack of large-denomination cash at Equity Bank DRC” are other factors for the delay in payments.

He lamented that in some provinces, payment has been coming in up to three months late, and added, “This is an extremely serious situation for the poor teachers, who have no resources other than their meager salaries, which do not allow them to make any savings at all.”

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“To cope with this reality, many of them turn to interest-bearing loans to survive. This only increases their poverty. A reality that the Church, as an expert in humanity, can only condemn as it affects human dignity,” Mons. Nshole said.

Unfortunately, the CENCO Secretary general said, “This situation has given rise to much speculation and reaction against the Diocesan Caritas organizations, which are wrongly accused of being responsible for these repeated delays.”

“Some go so far as to claim that the Church is trading with the money of the teachers it is blocking in order to gain some interest; which would be truly inhumane,” he recounted, and added, “In some dioceses, teachers intoxicated by these rumors organize protest marches against the Caritas, sometimes insulting members of the Clergy. In some cases, they have even laid hands on consecrated persons, as in Basankusu.”

Mons. Nshole further said, “It turns out that, in most cases, these false rumors are fueled by political actors with a poor track record, who seek to give the impression that they are looking after their people, or by people who think in business terms to make money, and claim to be able to do better than the Caritas.”

As a way forward, Mons. Nshole said, “IFOD has approached the Central Bank to find a lasting solution; the latter has offered to bail out its branches, where certain Caritas organizations will be able to obtain supplies.”

He said, “Holding IFOD or our diocesan Caritas responsible for delays in teachers' pay, as has been done up to now, can only be justified by ignorance or bad faith.”

Jude Atemanke is a Cameroonian journalist with a passion for Catholic Church communication. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism and Mass Communication from the University of Buea in Cameroon. Currently, Jude serves as a journalist for ACI Africa.