Dakar, Senegal — Observers in Dakar have noted a suppressed sense of concern among civil servants of Senegal's erstwhile Communication ministry, which was among several departments scraped off in a curtailed cabinet announced at the weekend.

"Junior staff members are very worried, not knowing what was in store for them," Makhtar Ndiaye, technical adviser at the beleaguered ministry told the Senegalese News agency (APS).

Her colleague sharing the same bureau was no less pessimistic, indicating she "would wait for the setting up of a structure that would replace the defunct communication department."

"Every dark cloud has a silver lining, perhaps with a new structure we might see the end of the tunnel," she remarked rather wistfully.

"The worst of situations would be to send us to another department," reckoned yet another civil servant, adding, "what is essential is to work, whatever the station we are posted to, given that we cannot be laid off without any good reason."

The many questions being raised are not necessarily concerned with human resources, but rather with structures - Department of Communication, Department of Studies, Regulations, Posts and Telecommunication and their divisions.