'No retrenchment for civil servants'

Published: 29 January 2014

Finance and Economic Development Minister Patrick Chinamasa said on Tuesday the Government does not plan to retrench any member of the civil service to balance its budget which is skewed towards employment costs, the New Ziana reported.

Employment costs have in the past decade accounted for the bulk of Government expenditure and will chew up over 70 percent of the 2014, $4.1 billion national budget.

This has resulted in the Government failing to direct meaningful funds towards public sector investment programmes to benefit the rest of the populace.

But Chinamasa told the National Assembly while defending the budget that growing the economy was the only solution to addressing the Government's cash flow problems.

Retrenching part of the over 200 000 strong civil service, he said, was not on the plan.

"I will not put my signature to retrench the civil service in order to cut the salary bill. We must grow the economy so that the economy gets bigger and the budget also gets bigger."

Some opposition MDC members shouted "what about ghost workers" as Chinamasa defended position.

A civil service audit conducted during the tenure of the inclusive Government which ended after last year's July 31 general elections, revealed that there were thousands of ghost workers on the payroll.

The figure remains debatable as others put it at 70 000 while the Public Service Commission refuted it.

Chinamasa applauded civil service representatives for their consideration of current difficulties the Government was facing during the just concluded salary negotiations.

The Government has promised to award civil servants salaries in line with the Poverty Datum Line estimated at over $500.

In the negotiations, the Government said it would stagger the increase as a cash squeeze made it impossible to honour the commitment at one go.

The Government offered an increment between $52 and $84 for the lowest and highest paid workers.

"I want to applaud the civil service for negotiating their wages taking into account the state of our economy," Chinamasa said to applause from the Zanu-PF dominated chamber.
- newziana

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