adminpercentage of the national budget spent on staff costs. He was upset that staff costs absorb this year 63 percent of total Government spending, with operations taking just 24 percent and capital expenditure 13 percent.
The schedule attached to the budget shows almost 243 000 established posts in the public service, although only 235 000 are filled at present, and the Minister was clear that this total of 1,78 percent of the population of Zimbabwe should not be receiving 63 percent of the Government budget while the rest of the people received just 37 percent and he wanted a higher percentage to be spent on other things, with social services near the top of his list.
But, as we have argued before, a large proportion of staff costs are not so much staff costs as operational costs. The establishment schedule allows everyone to see this.
Of the 242 997 established posts, 142 672 are in the Ministry of Education, Sports, Art and Culture and 35 583 in the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare. Those two ministries thus make up 73,36 percent of established posts, employing between them just about three civil servants in four.
And who are these vast numbers of people? Almost all of them are teachers, nurses, nurse aids and doctors. The head office and administrative staff of these two ministries form only a tiny fraction of their total staff, in fact a far smaller percentage of their totals than any other ministry.
And what are the principal operations of these two ministries? The education ministry’s main job is to ensure that there is a qualified teacher in front of every 35 to 40
Zimbabwean children, and that those children have adequate books, and the main job of the health ministry is to ensure that there are enough doctors and nurses to man the hospitals and clinics of the country, and that those people are at least equipped with the minimum tools and drugs for their job.
The main complaints against both ministries is not that they are overstaffed, but that there are not enough teachers, and so some classes have more than 40 children, and that there are not enough doctors and nurses, and so queues at hospitals and clinics are at times intolerable.
Of course both ministries need more equipment and infrastructure, but most of our very modest foreign aid is directed at these two vital areas, hence the position the education ministry has now reached where from next year every child will have a set of textbooks for the core subjects and every hospital and clinic has at least essential equipment and supplies.
We also ask that if education and health are not the primary social services demanded of every Government then what are these other more important “social services”?
In a very real sense the salaries of teachers, doctors and nurses are not “staff costs” but “operational costs” and we think that there are good arguments for listing them as such.
The money spent on these salaries are not so much being spent on a small fraction of the population, as Minister Biti thinks, but on the millions of Zimbabweans who need teachers and doctors for their children.
The sports, art and culture units in the education ministry are minute. Well over 95 percent of its staff stand in front of blackboards rather than run schools or school systems or man small units. The health ministry’s staff allocation is similar; almost all its people are in operations as professionals or semi-professionals, rather than sitting in offices as administrators.
Other developing countries cut their “staff costs” by limiting the number of children who can attend State schools, especially secondary schools, or by limiting access to health care. Zimbabwe, to its credit, thinks differently for two good reasons.
First we think that access to both is a fundamental human right. And surely no one can seriously disagree. Secondly we see it as an investment in the future; that a healthy and well-educated work force is required before we can attain rapid economic growth.
It might be taking longer than we hoped for that investment to pay-off economically, but that might the fault of other policies, not a fault of the education and health policies. We note that Minister Biti tends to think so from his emphasis in his Budget on job creation. But in the meantime, we need to look carefully at what we do spend our tax
money on, and who is on the State payroll. And at the same time let us at least realise that some “employment costs” are in fact the costs of those “social services” we all need and desire.
Online Reporter