Garowe (WDN) — Puntland’s civil servants are facing an increasingly painful question: why has the government failed to pay their salaries for months while public funds continue to be spent on other priorities?
Government employees are reportedly owed up to seven months of salaries, making this one of the most serious and prolonged salary crises Puntland’s civil service has experienced in years. The salary crisis facing Puntland’s civil servants reportedly began as early as September 2023. Since then, unpaid salaries and other outstanding employment entitlements have continued to accumulate, leaving many government employees struggling for years without receiving the full compensation they are owed.
What began as delayed payments has evolved into a prolonged hardship for civil servants and their families, raising growing concerns about the government’s failure to honor its basic obligations to the people who keep its institutions running.
The situation is becoming even more troubling as civil servants increasingly seek answers from the government. If a government employee formally asks why his or her salary has not been paid, the government should have a clear, transparent and documented answer.
Instead, the apparent absence of a satisfactory explanation is fueling frustration among employees who depend on their monthly salaries to support their families.
A Simple Question the Government Must Answer
The question from civil servants is not complicated: Where is our salary, and why has the government failed to pay it?
These employees have already performed their duties. Their salaries are not political donations or discretionary benefits. They are compensation for services rendered to the government and the public.
Puntland’s own budget framework reportedly establishes a hierarchy for salary payments, placing security personnel first, civil servants second and political officeholders—including ministers and parliamentarians—last.
If that provision is being followed, civil servants should have a reasonable expectation that their salaries will be protected within the government’s financial planning. But the reality appears dramatically different.
According to available information, civil servants have received only two salary payments during 2026, reportedly corresponding to the two major Islamic holidays, while substantial arrears remain outstanding.
The unpaid salaries are estimated at approximately $500,000 per month. Seven months of arrears would therefore amount to roughly $3.5 million. That figure is significant—but it is also small when compared with reported government revenues of approximately $10 million per month.
This raises an unavoidable question: If Puntland is collecting millions of dollars in revenue every month, why can it not find approximately half a million dollars to pay the people who run its government?
The most revealing test of governance may now be how the administration responds when civil servants begin demanding answers. A civil servant who asks why salaries have not been paid should not be treated as disloyal, troublesome or politically motivated. Demanding one’s legally earned salary is not political activism. It is an employment right.
A responsible government that serves its people should welcome such questions and respond with facts: the government’s revenues, expenditures, salary obligations, outstanding arrears and the timetable for clearing them.
If there is a genuine revenue shortfall, the government should explain it. If funds have been redirected to urgent security requirements, the government should disclose that.
If expenditures on travel, chartered aircraft, overseas delegations or other non-essential activities have taken priority over salaries, citizens have a right to know. Silence only deepens suspicion.
The Ministry of Finance Under Scrutiny
The controversy inevitably places the Puntland Ministry of Finance under scrutiny. Critics increasingly portray the ministry as operating less like an independent institution responsible for protecting public finances and more like an “ATM” for the presidency, with spending decisions allegedly driven by executive priorities rather than the approved budget.
That is a serious allegation and one that requires evidence and accountability—not political rhetoric. The appropriate response is therefore transparency.
Puntland should publish a clear account of its monthly revenues and expenditures and explain why salary obligations have accumulated while other government expenses continue to be funded.
The Auditor General’s reported identification of approximately $12 million in outstanding employee-related obligations makes the demand for transparency even more urgent.
For a senior government official, several months without a salary may be an inconvenience. For a low-paid civil servant, it can be catastrophic.
Seven months without regular income means unpaid rent, mounting debts, school fees, food insecurity and families forced to depend on relatives and informal borrowing. The result is predictable: demoralization, absenteeism and declining public services.
A government cannot reasonably demand that its employees remain committed and productive while simultaneously failing to honor the most basic obligation of an employer—paying them on time.
A Civil Service Without a Collective Voice
The prolonged crisis also exposes another institutional weakness: Puntland’s civil servants appear to lack a strong, independent collective mechanism through which they can defend their employment rights.
The creation of a lawful and politically independent civil servants’ labor union or professional association could provide an important safeguard.
Such a body could give government employees a legitimate platform to ask questions about salaries, employment conditions and budget compliance without turning every workplace grievance into a political confrontation.
Civil servants should not have to remain silent simply because they fear that demanding their salaries could be interpreted as opposition to the government. The Government owes its employees an answer. Ultimately, this is not simply a dispute over payroll. It is a question of governance.
Puntland’s government has a responsibility to explain how public money is collected, allocated and spent. Civil servants have a right to know why their salaries have not been paid, particularly when the government’s budget reportedly places their payments ahead of ministers and members of parliament.
If a civil servant sends a message asking, “Why have you not paid my salary?”, the appropriate response from government should not be intimidation, silence or political labeling. It should be an answer.
Where is the money? Where did it go? Who decided the priorities? And when will the salaries be paid? Those are legitimate questions.
And the longer the government refuses to answer them, the more the salary crisis becomes a test not of Puntland’s finances—but of its commitment to accountability, good governance and the dignity of the people who serve the state.
WardheerNews