Source: NEW SALARY MODEL FOR CIVIL SERVANTS – Sunday News Jun 18, 2017
Vusumuzi Dube, Sunday News Reporter
THE Government has introduced a new civil servants remuneration system that will see teachers, nurses and other health workers being paid or allocated resources through their specific programmes and sub-programmes with effect from July as part of a programme based budgeting which has now been adopted.
Although the Ministry of Finance, who are the architects of the programme were not readily available to comment, programme-based budgeting refers to a process where money or resources are distributed according to the nature of activities performed by those involved in the programme. This has sent jitters among civil servants with some suspecting that the
Government was introducing a process where they will be paid according to their workload.
Contacted for comment, Secretary in the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education Dr Sylvia Utete-Masango said: “This has to do with the employer and is not under my jurisdiction.”
Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare Minister Cde Prisca Mupfumira however, said although she has heard about the new system, she was out of the country in recent weeks and needed time to consult her ministry officials to get a picture of the new development.
“I have been hearing a lot concerning that issue but as the employer I am not aware of its implementation as yet, I will have to find out from my officials, maybe by Monday (tomorrow) I will have something tangible. However, I must emphasise that it will be highly impossible for this system to be implemented without any consultations,” said Minister Mupfumira.
According to a circular dated 9 June 2017 that was sent to provincial education directors by the director of human resources in the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education (Southern Region) a Mr Muguse, the system will come into effect from 1 July and pioneered in three ministries: Primary and Secondary Education, Health and Child Care and that of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare. Other ministries will be taken on board later this year.
“The Ministry of Finance and Economic Development is implementing the programme based remuneration as part of the programme based budgeting adopted by the Government of Zimbabwe. Under programme based budgeting (employment costs), all staff members will be paid their salaries through their specific programmes and sub-programmes with effect from July 2017. Other ministries will be taken on board later this year,” reads part of the circular.
The circular added that those that fall under the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education mainly teachers must have submitted specific information that would determine in which programme they fall under. According to the circular, headmasters were supposed to have put their staff in the specific programmes by Friday last week to district offices, which should then be forwarded to provincial offices by Friday of which the information would be sent to the head office and be ready by end of this month.
According to the circular, teachers were supposed to provide details of their names, designation and EC number. In addition they are also supposed to include which Grade (Primary) and Forms (Secondary) they are teaching. For Primary school teachers they also indicate if they are teaching junior infant education (ECD A to Grade 2) or junior education (Grade 3-7).
For secondary education the teachers should also detail if they teach just secondary education (Form 1-6) or special needs.
The circular added that teachers must also add information on non-formal education activities they were involved in.
Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa and his Secretary Mr Willam Manungo could not be contacted to clarify on the issues.
Zimbabwe Teachers Association chief executive officer Mr Sifiso Ndlovu said the new programme might create division among teachers as the assumption would be that some were not working. He, however, said the programme could be used to allocate other resources, not salaries.
“According to my understanding this is just a budget analysis tool that will mainly focus on the allocation of resources through programmatic budgeting. For example it will focus on teachers dividing them in terms of levels, like junior and infant, the system won’t affect the salary scale at all but instead will focus on the allocation of resources focusing on job activities, meaning to say teachers in the infant level will be prioritised in the allocation of resources because of the demand of the job.
“However, this should not be viewed as a means of creating disparities within the sector as some circles are trying to purport, of which I feel the Government could have done a lot in terms of educating civil servants on what exactly this system pertains, if anything I feel it is a step in the right direction, as an association we will also play our part in terms of conscientising our membership,” said Mr Ndlovu.
Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe president Dr Takavafira Zhou said they were fears the new method could see the Government cut some teachers’ salaries as they would accuse them of not fulfilling their programme requirements.
“This is just an abnormal procedure meant to keep teachers unnecessarily busy and which is not adding any value to the sector. Honestly, it is an insult because they are reducing teachers to clerical duties, how can they be forced to define what they do, something which must be done by the employer.
“What we foresee is that there will come a time when some teachers’ salaries will be slashed as they will be told they are not fulfilling their mandate. The Government is forgetting that the job of teaching is not only the mandate of the teachers but is an all stakeholder approach hence it is unfair to put the entire weight on the teacher alone,” said Dr Zhou.
Health Services Board chairperson Dr Lovemore Mbengeranwa said while he was aware that the Government was in the process of rolling out the new payment system he said details were still sketchy.
“Yes, I am aware that there have been meetings held with the Finance Ministry dealing with this new system but as of now I cannot really say what it pertains; we are waiting for further communication,” said Dr Mbengeranwa.
COMMENTS
Zhou is spot on. This is simply to further torture the already over-worked & under-paid civil servants by adding to their workloads some value-less activities. It’s very surprising that Sifiso is applauding the useless & disruptive exercise. Clearly there is something seriously wrong with Sifiso if he can’t see any problem with this kind of thing. Everyone knows very well that no-one beyond the shop-floor will spare even a second to genuinely look at those piles & piles of documents which the poor shop-floor workers will have wasted precious time compiling about their so-called programmes or activities. More so, the service recipients (eg learners) will surely be robbed of much need attention from those civil servants who will have to juggle between fulfilling their core business and the government imposed useless exercise. I was a teacher once, and I work with many teachers who concentrated on Scheming at the expense of actually teaching the learners, to please Heads & EOs who were sometimes overly obsessed about finely done Schemes. The result was, some of us who were not so much in good books with the Heads & EOs for not Scheming as diligently as required always produced better pass rates. But the point is, surely core business will suffer as attention is given to this proposed useless exercise.
Agree, mapingu. Primarily, hatching up such programmes as this is first intended to make it appear as though ministers and managers are actually ministering and managing and developing useful projects to accomplish something… rather than doing nothing but sitting on their thumbs collecting great salaries and perks. And, secondly, to justify increasing workloads and reducing salaries of the worker bees, so those scumbags at the top don’t have their pay cut due to decreased funding.
I come from a long line of educators, and aside from those folks engaged in good parenting, there is no other profession that has a greater impact on the future of a nation than teachers. In the light of that, get rid of the bad ones, and pay the good ones what they are worth… and provide them with the support necessary for them to continue their contribution.
We from the village think this should apply to the cabinet ministers and their immediate juniors not teachers. Our teachers are good people with whom we share many challenges – we live together, drink together and we are beaten together come elections. But at least we have our hoes for the field, they have no chalk, no plan books and and no pens and they are always paid after 3 to six months. They travel in donkey pulled scotch carts to wait in queues in far away towns for up to a week to collect 50 bond notes. Will they put this down as part of their work? It sounds like a lot to us. But well, who are we anyway for the living gods have spoken.