10 Aug 2015

Tonga reviewing recently increased salaries

11:13 am on 10 August 2015

The Tonga government may spend two and a half million US dollars on a review into the salaries of the civil service that they only just increased.

The project began last year looking at the judicary and parliament and has since moved on to look at what civil servants receive.

The work comes after the government recently approved over 2 million dollars for a civil service pay rise in their first budget.

The Finance Minister 'Aisake Eke says the review was expected to be completed earlier.

"The plan was to start the implementation of the new salary structure for the civil servants in July so that was the plan but apparently there were some ministries that hadn't completed providing the job description to the authority so they can carry out their task so that's why there was a delay."

2015 Tonga finance minister 'Aisake Eke

Finance Minister 'Aisake Eke. Photo: UN / youtube