A government project to overhaul the public sector's payroll system remains under deliberation and still needs to be completed in order to serve the interests of the state and national economy, Finance Minister Manaf Al-Hajri said on Saturday, noting that rumors currently circulated on social media regarding public sector salaries are "inaccurate" and "unrealistic."

The project known as the strategic alternative payroll system was initially proposed for the purpose of achieving equality among public sector employees and turn state departments into productivity, the minister said. The system seeks to achieve equality in payment and a new performance assessment system based on the employees' actual productivity. Without the evaluation system, the project will not achieve its target of encouraging productivity among public sector employees, said the minister.

Furthermore, the government wants to make sure that the project would not result in national manpower refusing work in the private sector "which is already struggling today because of lack of interest from a large number of young people due to its long working hours and focus on productivity in staff assessment," he said.

Efforts to implement the strategic payroll alternative system must not hinder the state's financial sustainability and government's ability to launch major projects, he further noted.