Manica Post
By Andrew Mambondiyani
12 March 2010
THE Public Service Commission is against the paying of incentives to teachers, as that has created division within the civil services, the commission’s chairman, Dr Mariyawanda Nzuwa, has said.
Responding to questions during a meeting with members of the civil service in Mutare on Tuesday night, Dr Nzuwa, said the Minister of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture, Mr David Coltart, had recommended the paying of incentives to teachers without consulting the Public Service Commission.
“Minister Coltart recommended the paying of incentives to teacher without consulting the PSC. It is like going into someone’s house without the permission of the owner. The paying of incentives to teachers has divided the public service sector. Some are getting incentives while others are not. Where could prison officers get their incentives? From prison inmates? It is like saying traffic police officers should get incentives from motorists. Do you think anything will go to the national coffers from money realised at roadblocks if we have to allow that? As a commission we are against the paying of incentives to teachers. We will sit down and address the issue,” Dr Nzuwa said.
The civil servants who had waited for hours for Dr Nzuwa to address them were disappointed when he said he had ‘not come with the money’, but only to hear their concerns and chart the way forward.
“We thought the chairman has come to tell us when we will get more money. Now you have come to tell us more problems. We should be receiving information about more money now. So why did you come here when you don’t have the money,” fumed another civil servant.
Dr Nzuwa, however, said: “I did not come with the money. What we want is for us to put our heads together and find ways of increasing production. If you want you can get 100 percent of what the Government is collecting in revenue, but after that what next? I want to hear issues affecting you and your expectations as civil servants. We want to fulfill our mandate as the civil service and that is to work for the people. I want to see on my own what is happening on the ground. We want to understand how you are working,” he said.
He said in October, the Public Service Commission wrote to the Finance Minister, Mr Tendai Biti with a proposal of about $300 for the lowest paid civil servant, but the ministry said its coffers were empty.
“At that time, the revenue collection was about $91 million per month. I have to tell you, I know that the money we are giving you is not enough. I am 72 years old, but I am not senile and I know there is no way a person can survive the whole month on $120 per month.
“The issue is that we are not saying we don’t want to give you money, but we don’t have the money, so we have to produce more for us to earn more.
“It is us who are not producing. I am given $48 million a month to pay everyone on the civil service payroll.
“So we need to plug many loopholes in the revenue collection. I am sure you are saying you want $150 housing allowance and $50 transport allowance, but if I give you that money today, your landlord will raise your rentals and transport operators will raise bus fares, so what we need is to empower you.
“We need to come up with housing programmes for civil servants and a housing programme should be a condition of service. We are also looking at ways of increasing our fleet of buses and currently we are working with the Central Mechanical Engineering Department (CMED) to buy buses for rural areas which will cater for civil servants,” he said.
On utility bills, Dr Nzuwa said a committee had been set up to draft a law, which would draw parameters for the charging of utility bills.
“It seems local authorities are possessed. I received a bill of more than $2 000, but there has not been water for the years. Now there is a committee to come up with a law on how ZESA and local authorities can charge their bills.
“Very soon the law will be in place,” he said.
He said had it not been for sanctions, the country would have borrowed against its national assets to kick-start the economy. “But we cannot do that because our hands are tied. We cannot sell even our stocks of ivory. We don’t have anywhere to sell the ivory,” he said.
Dr Nzuwa, however, took a shot on ministers who were promising civil servants money when on the ground nothing was happening.
“Ministers should not say we will give you money. Why promise people something when there is nothing,” he said.