And the government's urgency to get some of the major revenue offices opened is because it can scarcely meet payroll and other operational expenditures.
Last week we told you that the pay day for teachers had to be pushed back 5 days, and the prompted us to ask the PM if the 14 thousand teachers and public officers may see some kind of pay cut:
Jules Vasquez- Reporter
"Sir, with revenue short fall, we know that the wage bill is $540 million and with the short fall that you are predicting of $400 million you cannot make pay roll. How will the government continue to pay public officers and teachers and is a pay cut of some percentage in the foreseable future?"
Rt. Hon. Dean Barrow- Prime Minister
"Well, let me say that I will do my damn best to refrain from any pay cut for public officers. How to do it? We will simply have to borrow more from the Central Bank. As I recall, there is a degree of headroom there and if we borrow all that we can borrow we should be able to see the public servants through until there is a total reopening of the economy which will then put us in a position to start to see the revenue inflows that will allow us to continue on from the point we reach. In other words, we should start to see some revenue enhancement before we reach the point where all the monies that I propose to borrow from the Central Bank would have run out. So, in this way, I hope to keep public officers entirely without any pay cut."
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