Fiji's 30,000 civil servants have been paid nearly 16-million US dollars in Cost of Living Adjustments with the money coming from slashing the budgets of ministries and departments.
The payout was for a 2% increase going back to January 2005.
It follows an agreement signed by the government with civil service unions in April covering the years 2005 to 2007 which will see a total payout of 145-million US dollars.
A newspaper report says civil servants were seen queuing up in front of automatic teller machines from as early as 3.00am yesterday to withdraw money.