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A group of teachers who visited Chronicle’s Gweru offices to express their displeasure yesterday said they had applied for loans from the company when it was still operational.
“When we applied for the loans, the agreement which we signed only allowed the company to deduct money through the stop order facility on condition that we fail to pay back the money on monthly basis in cash,” said one of the teachers.
The teachers, who said they never defaulted in payment and no longer owed the company anything, said they were surprised when they later learnt that the company was now deducting money through the Salary Services Bureau.
They said the problem started after they had cleared their arrears with the micro- finance company.
The teachers said they suspected that the company could have tricked many civil servants using the same method.
“We want to believe that more people could have been tricked by the same organisation into signing the forms, which allowed them to deduct money from our salaries in the event that we default in payment. The company went on to deduct our money despite us having cleared everything we owed them,” said another teacher.
The teachers said they tried to engage the company, which was closed about five years ago to rectify the issue to no avail.
“They keep giving us some excuses and the company has been deducting money form our pay for nearly five years now,” said another teacher.
The affected teachers said the company was deducting $240 per month.
They said the figure was not even the amount that they had agreed to be deducted when they signed the forms in the first place.
“We don’t even know where they got the $240 figure they are deducting from our salaries. The amount being taken off our salaries leaves us with nothing to take home considering that we have other accounts that need to be serviced,” said another teacher.
A director with the company — Mrs Mandava — who is based in Masvingo said the affected teachers should approach the Service Salary Bureau to rectify the problem.
“We are not receiving that money that they claim we are deducting from their salaries. The affected teachers should visit the Salary Services Bureau to have the problem rectified. We have been advising them to do that for some time now,” she said.
Online Reporter