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Information reaching Daily Guide indicates that public sector workers are highly agitated by the irregular payment schedules of their monthly salaries. Daily Guide sources in government agencies and parastatals complain that their salaries are being paid in �piece-meals� by the government. Since December 2011, salaries of government workers are uncharacteristically paid in batches, with some delaying up to the middle of the month simply because the government is broke. Government workers are usually paid by the close of the third week of each month; however, Daily Guide has learnt that currently, these payments come as late as the next month. This development is seriously fuelling speculations that government is facing serious challenges in meeting its wage bills and is unable to release the much needed subventions. For instance, workers in public universities are yet to be paid their May salaries as at yesterday because government has not yet released its subvention to them. Some of the universities have fallen on commercial loans to pay their workers in order to assuage agitations on campus. Other subvented agencies are equally suffering from the malaise. The cash flow challenges facing the Mills government have apparently extended to workers in Ghana�s missions abroad. A distress letter sent to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs shows that workers in Ghana�s embassy in Japan have not been paid for more than three months now. DAILY GUIDE investigations indicate that the aggrieved career diplomats at the embassy recently planned a demonstration to voice their discontent, but have been prevailed upon by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to rescind their decision. �We are handling the situation from the Ministry, the head of mission is fully aware and we are in constant communication with all our missions who are having difficulties,� deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Chris Kpodo told Citi FM. It appears that the Mills government is in dire straits. DAILY GUIDE sources at the major public universities, for instance, have also complained about the undue delays and sometimes downright non-payment of their salaries. Critics have cited the series of recent industrial strikes in the public sector as symptoms of this squeeze in subventions from government. Doctors, nurses, judicial services workers and teachers among others, have all staged industrial strikes recently. Usually, these strikes are caused by delays in migration to the recently instituted salary scale, the Single Spine Salary Structure. However, underneath these protests are agitations over irregular salary payments. A recent strike staged specifically for non-payment of subvention, was by the Judicial Service Staff Association of Ghana (JUSAG), who downed their tools for almost two weeks. Critics are pointing at the Mills government�s �half-hearted� commitment to meeting its wage obligations as a result of a possible dried up national coffers. Government officials have however sought to douse the complaints by explaining that the delays are caused by some distortions and technical challenges. The Deputy Minister of Information, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, on Tuesday, assured all workers whose salaries have delayed that government is doing all it can to pay them. Speaking on Radio Gold, he attributed the delays to some distortions being corrected; explaining that the government is putting efficient systems in place to avoid a recurrence of similar situations in the future.