
The Accountant General has been warned that she may have to open up the Government accounting system to IT experts appointed by public sector trade unions to investigate her claim that applications used therein to process salaries are not reversible. Justice Tshepo Motswagole sounded the warning on Thursday during a hearing of an urgent application through which BOFEPUSU and its member trade unions seek to force government to comply with a judgment delivered two days earlier nullifying the 3 % unilateral salary increase of public servants in March 2016. Government contends that the salaries for April have already been prepared. Opposing the application, government lawyers argued that it is impossible to reverse the system once an instruction has been performed and therefore can only comply with the court order after the month of May. Instead, the lawyer suggested that the state need time to bring in experts on the salary system from abroad to explain why it cannot be reversed. But the unions, who are adamant that such is not true, disagree. Attorney Mboki Chilisa, representing BOFEPUSU and her member trade unions argued that public service salaries have not yet been prepared, and that the system allows for reversal. "We…