STATE enterprises must carry out staff audits for performance reviews, as well as redeploy some staffers to other departments, the State Enterprises Restructuring Agency (Sera) has said.
BY VICTORIA MTOMBA
Sera executive director, Edgar Nyoni told NewsDay that staff audits were critical in many parastatals, as some had lost personnel, who left for greener pastures, while others had workers made redundant due to technology and, therefore, needed to review their skills.
“Staff audits are critical in parastatals so that they will move some of the staff to other departments depending on the capacity of the organisation,” he said.
“This will also help the organisation to recruit qualified staff, with the requisite skills. The issue is not about retrenchment; the staff may be deployed elsewhere, as there will be areas that need staff.”
Nyoni said retrenchment would be the last option, adding that some parastatals had started audits, albeit at a slow pace. Parastatals such as Zesa Holdings and TelOne have about 2 000 employees, each.
TelOne, which is ranked among the best-performing parastatals, could also be reeling under employment pressure after reports to Parliament revealed that 600 of the 2 000 workers did not have five O Level subjects.
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There is need for government intervention at TelOne on issues of staff rationalisation and audit if the enterprise is to continue in a growth trajectory as witnessed so far, analysts have said.
Reforming parastatals is one of the pillars anchoring government’s arrears clearance programme. Zimbabwe plans to clear $1,8 billion arrears it owes to the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and the African Development Bank by the end of the year.
Early this year, there were indications that Zesa Holdings wanted to retrench about 500 workers.
That, however, failed to take off.
The country has 78 parastatals, with the majority of them a strain on the fiscus, as they continue making losses despite getting Treasury support.
Poor corporate governance practices and interference from parent ministries have been blamed for the poor performance of parastatals and State-owned enterprises.
In its reports on parastatals for 2015, the Auditor-General’s Office said most State enterprises were failing to recover from outstanding debts due to non-payment by debtors.
The reports also showed that board fees and sitting allowances were either being grossed up or not being taxed.
