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Yoliswa Dube Features Correspondent
RECENT reports of Premier Service Medical Aid Society (PSMAS) boss Cuthbert Dube’s pay shocker of $230,000 a month have peeved all and sundry with many saying his net salary and those of other executives were outrageous. It is reported that top management at PSMAS is gobbling at least $1 million in basic monthly salaries at a time the State enterprise is reeling under a $38 million debt.
As at December 31, the society owed service providers $38 million in unpaid bills for medical services rendered to its members.
After Dube, the next two top earners were the group finance manager, a E Gwinyai (no longer with the PSMAS) who earned a basic salary of $200,000 a month, and group operations executive Enock Chitekedza whose salary was $122,000.
Eight other senior directors were earning a basic salary of $60,000 every month. Three other middle managers were paid $30,000, $22,000 and $15,000 each.
This brought the monthly wage bill of the top 14 managers to nearly $1, 1 million. Everyone else at PSMAS earned a combined $900,000 a month.
Irked by these salaries, Dr William Mubayiwa, a PSMAS member and medical doctor said it was very disappointing to learn of such outrageous salaries considering the poor service delivery offered at the various PSMAS centres.
“Service provision at PSMAS is terrible and it is disappointing to say the least how someone can be taking home $230,000 every month yet there is so much lacking at the parastatal. If you go to one of their pharmacies right now you are guaranteed that you will be there for at least an hour. Why not open other pharmacies or improve their staff turnover with all that money they are wasting on one person?” he questioned.
Dr Mubayiwa said there were so many shortcomings at PSMAS but it seemed as though the more money they were splashing out on their executives the less service they were rendering.
“In all honesty, a lot could be done with all that money. I once went to one of their pharmacies and after queuing there for close to an hour l could not get the drug l was looking for. As it is, private hospitals are not even taking PSMAS. The board is at fault for allowing him so much money to begin with.
“Dube has been working at PSMAS for too long and l think that is where the problem lies,” speculated Dr Mubayiwa.
Government is taking action on the hefty salaries paid to parastatals’ bosses and the PSMAS board has slashed Dube’s salary and those of senior management at the firm. Board members would not say how much Dube would take home effective January 2014, but sources indicated it would be within the range of that of the highest-paid chief executive officer (CEO) in Zimbabwe’s private sector, a figure believed to be between $50,000 and $60,000.
This would mean he now gets roughly a quarter of what he earned between September and December 2013, but is still the highest paid job in a government-linked enterprise.
It is alleged that this salary would also be slashed when government completes its re-alignment of packages of bosses at parastatals and State-owned enterprises.
But the question remains; why had the board allowed him to get such an outrageous amount of money to begin with?
“These salaries are actually vulgar and I am sure it is not just PSMAS alone that is paying so much money. These companies must be investigated. We are always seeing people buying these expensive cars and big mansions and we think they are using muti to make money but that is not the case. It is a reality, they can afford to buy such cars and mansions,” said Charlotte Ndlovu, a PSMAS member and civil servant.
Ndlovu believes those behind Dube’s salary were being inconsiderate.
“That is too much money for one person. It is as if they are living in a different country with a different economy from ours. I recently went to visit a PSMAS dentist to get my teeth cleaned only to be told that their machine was not working and it is not the only service they are failing to provide. That money could have been used to repair some of these machines.
“Service delivery is becoming poor by the day. I contribute money to PSMAS every month so that I get a service when I need it but when I seek the service, it is not given. As it is, we cannot access private hospitals because they have not been taking our medical aid since May last year, if I am not mistaken. What do we do now? Where do we go for medical treatment? It is very disturbing.
“If they are not careful they will lose their clients because of this. They are really abusing funds and this explains why their service delivery has been so poor. If possible, I think all those at top management and those in the board should be moved and new people should take their places,” said Ndlovu.
An official at Mater Dei Hospital in Bulawayo who spoke off the record confirmed that they were not taking PSMAS clients due to the organisation’s failure to pay up claims over a protracted period of time. “We have handed over the matter to our lawyers and they are handling it,” she said.
In a statement, PSMAS deputy chair Newton Mhlanga said they took note of a weakness in the society’s remuneration practice, founded on a long-established culture from PSMAS’ inception in the colonial days, where the CEO’s package was solely determined by the board chair.
He said the board, through its benefits committee was finalising the review and realignment of board fees and related benefits in line with market trends.
Mhlanga said the board made a decision to review its operating procedures and align these to best practice in corporate governance, adding that the board also decided that specialists like medical doctors working for PSMAS should be competitively rewarded ahead of general administrative staff.
He said the board had already commissioned a restructuring exercise of the entire organisation, which process should complete (sic) by end of January 31.
Economic commentator Dr Eric Bloch said Dube’s salary was completely hair raising and was far beyond what should be happening.
“This is massively above and beyond what anyone should be getting, far above what happens in economics and industry. I am pleased that at last the government is taking action. No one in the private sector is even getting that amount of money. With such salaries at hand, it means they are not covering other expenses and they have massive deficits,” said Dr Bloch.
Efforts to contact Dube were fruitless as one of his mobile phones was unreachable while the other went unanswered.
Online Reporter