Lasting solution key to the civil service salary crisis

political dimension. That civil servants are not being paid enough is not contested.
What seems to take long to decide is how their plight can be improved. The results of such a delay are there for all to see. And they are painful to the civil servant.
With the lowest paid civil servant earning US$296, who can condemn them when they raise complaints? It is time for Government and its workers to find a common solution to the plight that is facing its employees.
The Treasury is in a fix.
It has to cater for almost 230 000 civil servants, but these will consume a major chunk of the national budget if they get a salary increment of a minimum of US$596, the poverty datum line.
The solution could be to have a lean civil service through an audit that is acceptable to everybody.
Such an audit would be beneficial to both parties if political bickering is avoided like what happened in the past. A proper audit will leave Government with more money in its pockets as resources are directed to the critical staff.
The other option is for the Government to tighten its revenue collection. Finance Minister Tendai Biti in July slashed this year’s national budget by about 10 percent to US$3,64 billion citing poor revenue inflows.
The poor revenue inflows could be attributed to poor strategies in collecting taxes by the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority. The other solution could be to ensure that non-performing parastatals are commercialised to at least contribute something to the Treasury.
Just imagine how much the Government could rake in if Air Zimbabwe, National Railways of Zimbabwe, NetOne, Zimbabwe National Road Administration, Cold Storage Company and Zupco, just to name a few, were operating profitably and paying dividends?
The potential in mining should be fully exploited to ensure there is more revenue from that sector.
Zimbabwe is endowed with diamonds, platinum, gold and all other minerals that one can think of. We need not concentrate on diamonds from Marange alone, but all minerals that are being exploited in this country.
Civil servants wonder how they can get such low salaries in a country with world giants in mining extracting mineral resources every minute.
The other solution is to offer the civil servants long-term incentives, including access to housing schemes and mortgage facilities. And any other incentives that can reduce the workers’ expenses can do. The plight of civil servants can remain the same if no practical action is taken.
This explains why teachers always issue ultimatums at critical times to intimidate the Government. In fact, the Government is sitting on a strike ultimatum from the teachers that expires today.
If the teachers go ahead and strike, then it would be unfortunate for the pupils who are preparing for end-of-year tests as well as critical Ordinary and Advanced level examinations .
The last time the teachers held a strike during examination time, there was chaos with counter-accusations of cheating due to lack of proper supervision. And the pupils lose out because they need their teachers most during examination time for revision. Piecemeal solutions to the civil servants salaries have failed.
The education sector tried incentives for urban teachers and rural allowances, but such solutions are viewed as temporary.
We therefore call for a comprehensive approach and lasting solution to address the plight of civil servants once and for all.