‘Shake down’ in public offices

in inefficient service delivery, a survey by The Herald shows.
This, trade unions have said, is stymieing economic development at the national level.
The unions say Treasury should appreciate that despite the fact that civil servants were reporting for duty everyday, most of their time was spent on wheeling and dealing.
Zimbabwe Congress of Trade unions president Mr Lovemore Matombo said: “It is a common concept that if one is receiving wages below the living wage he will survive by moonlighting to supplement family needs.
“Office hours are used to enter deals for survival and this reduces the effectiveness of the civil service.
“It is also breeding corruption as the employees are taking every opportunity to pick any dollar they see flying.”
A Zimbabwe Federation of Trade Unions representative said Treasury should not take pride in the fact that workers were reporting for duty as they were using Government offices, phones and computers for personal business.
“That is the reason why some of them are even constructing houses and driving flashy personal cars despite the low salaries,” the official said.
Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe secretary-general Mr Raymond Majongwe said the poor remuneration compromised the security and integrity of State institutions because important documents and information could be auctioned off.
“This the reason why we get reports of people getting fake exam certificates and others getting hold of more than six Zimbabwean passports in different names.
“These important documents are being availed to undeserving people for a fee.
“In fact, low salaries have resulted in a dereliction of duty.
“This is very dangerous to national development,” he said.
Civil servants’ salaries fall below US$250 and far short of the poverty datum line, which is pegged at US$509,38 a month for a family of five.
Finance Minister Tendai Biti has resolutely refused to increase salaries despite tens of millions of dollars being made available to Treasury through sales of diamonds from Marange.
A public directive from President Mugabe for an improvement in State employees’ salaries has also gone ignored.
This is despite Minister Biti recently approving salaries of at least US$1 750 for himself and his fellow ministers.
This has reportedly further demoralised State workers.
ZCTU’s Mr Matombo said: “Go in any Government office and the attitude to work is the same.
“It seems no one is bothered by the need to serve the public and you can’t blame them.
“Even supervisors who are supposed to monitor things pay lip-service to duty because they also want inducements.
“It will take a long time to eradicate this culture that is being built.”
Mr Matombo said Zimbabwe should abandon the Western economic models as they have failed the country.
“Low disposable incomes mean the country’s economy remains stagnant. There is no country that has developed while disposable incomes remain below the poverty datum line.”
He castigated the IMF for recommending to Minister Biti that Government stop salary increments.
“Are salaries of half the poverty datum line too high? Let’s abandon these neo-liberal polices.
“We need a complete change of the development paradigm, as the Washington Consensus and neo-liberal policies of the West are failing Zimbabwe,” he fumed.