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In his response Minister Biti insisted that revenue inflows to Treasury were inadequate, but bonuses will still be paid.
“Payment of bonuses to our civil servants is guaranteed. We will pay them as usual but as we did last year the payment will be staggered,” said Minister Biti.
“However, you have to understand that it is not easy. Our revenue inflows are not good and the budget is under-performing, which is why we had to cut recurrent expenditures from ministries.”
There are about 235 000 civil servants in the country and they usually get their bonuses between November and December every year.
Minister Biti’s earlier statement that the bonuses were in doubt had angered civil servants who accused him of taking them for granted.
The civil servants said their bonuses were not negotiable and challenged the Government to use every means to ensure the money to pay them was found.
Minister Biti defended the recruitment freeze on ministries, but said essential services such as education and health will be considered on special arrangements.
He said Treasury was under pressure as it was failing to pay debts to its service providers.
“As we speak the Government is sitting on $350 million in arrears to service providers such as fertiliser and seed companies who are owed about $40 million.
“We owe $30 million to Zesa, another $30 million to mobile providers, more than $40 million in unpaid rates to local authorities and $20 million to Zinwa.
“We have accumulated a budget deficit and we are already eating into the future,” said Minister Biti.
The Minister described the Government’s failure to service its debts as an economic “tsunami” that was going to create a deadlock in the future.
He said the development was affecting the performance of parastatals, local authorities and other key sectors.
Minister Biti said as a result the Government was facing problems in paying its dues to Zimra and NSSA.
Poor performance of key economic fundamentals has already seen Minister Biti revising this year’s economic growth rate from 9,4 percent to 5,6 percent.
The budget was also reduced from $4 billion to $3,6 billion.
Due to the tight financial situation Treasury has said it will be more aggressive to get revenue by directing Government departments receiving revenue which is lying idle to remit it to the fiscal authorities.
Minister Biti said his Ministry has engaged South Africa and Angola for lines of credit they pledged and expressed optimism that the International Monetary Fund will soon open doors to lines of credit to Zimbabwe.
Online Reporter