Wednesday, July 19, 2023, the sweet bells still ring at the Volcanological Observatory of Goma OVG. Hypotheses are approaching realities following the persistent crisis on the ground. Here, since the passage of the new Minister of Scientific Research and Technological Innovation at the OVG, the agents and executives of this institution have only lived in a dead end to receive their bonus for the second quarter of 2023.
According to sources close to the OVG contacted by Matininfos.net, the interview of the supervising minister, Doctor Gilbert Kabanda, with the scientific and administrative staff of the OVG on Monday July 03, 2023, the bonus had already been placed in the account of the OVG since that date.
However, this was false according to the agents and executives of the OVG after verification.
‘It was this Monday, July 17, 2023 that OVG agents learned that it is now that the OVG account has been funded while a document of an alleged transfer from the BCC to RAWBANK issued on July 12, 2023 showed that the money was already in the OVG account. “said the same source.
And to continue: “That same day of July 12, the DAF made a trip to RAWBANK, the money was not yet in the account.
All last week the money was not yet in the account.
On the RAWBANK document, it is stated that the amount transferred to the account was for: “Economic intervention” and not the premium.
This amount there divided by the number of staff, according to the functions and grades you will find that the conditions of the agents remain the same, therefore static and that is what frustrated the agents”.
Meanwhile, the ministry’s legal adviser who had spoken to staff representatives and the COGE, reportedly pleaded with the officers to take that share of the bonus first for now while waiting for advocacy on the bonus increase to take place at the Ministry of Budget and Finance.
An argument that would have pushed them to understand that mistrust would still exist between them with its COGE which has been disavowed since January 2023 in several correspondence addressed to the supervisory ministry with copies to the Head of State and to several members of the government.
At this stage, the agents of the OVG swear on the replacement of the current COGE by new leading figures.
They promise a new strike movement if this situation persists.
As a reminder, from February 2 to March 5, 2023, the agents and executives of the Volcanological Observatory of Goma OVG were on strike.
Jules Ninda