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NewsDay

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Flush out ghost workers first

Opinion & Analysis
The government has been grappling with a bloated civil service since 2009 and judging from contradictory pronouncements by ministers, there is still no consensus on how to bring down the unsustainable wage bill.

The government has been grappling with a bloated civil service since 2009 and judging from contradictory pronouncements by ministers, there is still no consensus on how to bring down the unsustainable wage bill.

Since last year the government has been finding it difficult to pay civil servants and this year it had to fiddle with pay dates after failing to pay its workers on time on a couple of occasions.

Finance minister Patrick Chinamasa last week revealed that Cabinet had agreed on drastic measures to reduce the wage bill from about 83% of government revenues to 40%.

He was presenting the Mid-Term Fiscal Policy Review where he hinted that in the next few weeks, the government would be working out ways to trim the wage bill and that could include cutting down on the 550 000 workers.

He said a recent audit of civil servants where government carried out a head count of its workers was the starting point. The assumption was that the high numbers of employees was partly attributed to ghost workers.

A credible audit of the civil service carried out during the inclusive government era actually established that there were ghost workers on the payroll, but it was deemed to be politically incorrect because Zanu PF was accused of employing most of them.

The comprehensive payroll and skills audit by Ernst & Young (India) on behalf of the government showed that there were more than 75 000 ghost workers.

These included 6 861 who were employed in one day and by one ministry amid allegations these were Zanu PF youth militia who helped the party win elections.

Therefore, Chinamasa’s task would never be an easy one given the ruling party’s history of abusing civil servants in order to retain State power.

Last year, Chinamasa was hung out to dry by President Robert Mugabe after he scrapped civil servants’ bonuses.

Mugabe reversed the plan before it was implemented and indications are the minister’s latest plans to cut the wage bill could be torpedoed by political interests.

Public Service, Labour and Social Services minister Prisca Mupfumira was quoted by State media laughing off suggestions that the government would reduce its workforce.

Mupfumira’s statements that sought to clarify Chinamasa’s pronouncements only served to expose lack of co-ordination in government.

The only way the government can be clear about what it needs to do with its oversized workforce would be to first deal with ghost workers whose existence is no longer a matter of conjecture as it was established by the two audits.

There is no debate that reducing employment costs from 83% of the budget to 40% would entail reducing the head count. The government would have to stop politicking about the issue, which has become very central to the restoration of the economy, and lay out a credible plan of action.

Civil servants have also made a useful contribution to the debate, arguing that reduction of costs should entail reducing the number of Cabinet ministers. Mugabe has to lead by example and trim his Cabinet to a number that can be carried by the ever-declining economy.

However, flushing out the ghost workers would lend credibility to the whole process.