(TALKZIMBABWE) Finance minister’s arrogance counter-productive
Finance minister’s arrogance counter-productiveSun, 17 Jan 2010 22:32:00 +0000
WHAT is happening to civil servants is just a tip of the iceberg that will sink the 'Titanic' that proudly declares itself the only voice of reason in the inclusive Government.
It is becoming apparent that Finance Minister Tendai Biti’s arrogance is superceded by his aversion to advice and common sense.
Minister Biti dictates to the men and women who are the backbone of Zimbabwe’s government because he lacks the ability to identify the needs and wants of the government’s work force. Coupled with the so-called union leaders who are easily pacified with backroom payouts, Zimbabwe’s civil servants are being screwed.
Here is the reality. Minister Biti has no understanding of what the life of the ordinary person he claims to represent is like.
The life of luxury that he lives with all the government perks are a far cry from what the teachers, police, clerks of Zimbabwe dream of. It is criminal for him to tell these men and women that things are tight and yet he can afford to fly abroad on almost a weekly basis for one thing or another.
Many of these foreign trips have yielded nothing, but empty promises while heavily subtracting from the few funds the country has.
As an employer, Government is making a mockery of its employees. The situation also underlines the mediocrity of some of the people in the inclusive Government, as they continue to make overtures to our counterparts who left for greener pastures to return and rebuild the country they refuse to address the one thing central to the brain drain.
No one wants to work for peanuts and no one will return to Zimbabwe as things stand. Instead, many will continue to leave or move into the private sector.
Civil servants are preached to about patience and endurance by those who display gross extravagance on their part when it comes to the spending of the meager funds in the coffers.
For all his posturing, what has Minister Biti cut back on to show that the country is struggling financially?
We are instead mocked by the likes of Eddie Cross who last year defended the kind of extravagance by the Speaker of Parliament saying when one is a top government official it “calls for a certain standard of living and perks”.
This is tantamount to a parent affording themselves luxuries while their children lack basic necessities.
Why is financial discipline for the masses and not for the leadership? First World politicians travel cheap while Zimbabwe’s ministers fly Business Class or First Class while crying that the government is broke.
Salaries of civil servants remain constant and yet the economy has seen growth these past months.
Minister Biti who announced salaries has defended his allocation of peanuts to civil servants as a law passed by Parliament and refuses to proffer a way forward because it would mean admitting his own incompetence.
It is common knowledge that at the beginning of the year civil service and government meet to negotiate salaries and Biti failed to take this into consideration.
Instead, he now wants to justify his actions by hiding behind Parliament. Laws are made by men for men and as such can be changed. It also calls into question what caliber of legislators we have who are just rubber-stamping everything. Look at the mess they made in the agricultural sector this season.
Biti’s calls for sponsorship towards salaries seek to divide the civil service. Sponsorship and incentives are a stop-gap measure that does not address the long-term problem.
Why should parents be forced to give incentives to teachers?
Does the government value teachers more than the rest of its employees such that they are willing to let parents bribe teachers so that their children can get an education?
Who else is the public going to bribe/sponsor to do their job because the government is not willing to pay its workers a decent wage? Maybe if the Minister of Finance stopped reducing sources of revenue by cutting down on duties, the government would be in a better position to give its workers a decent salary.
As things stand, a groundsman at a private school is getting a far much higher salary than the highest paid civil servant. The minimum daily allowance of an individual working for the Committee of Parliament on a New Constitution (COPAC) is the same as the salary of most civil servants. What this person is getting in a day is what a civil servant is expected to survive on for an entire month.
Civil servants deserve better.
Labels: CIVIL SERVANTS, ELITISM, MDC, NEOLIBERALISM, TENDAI BITI
posted by MrK @ 5:50 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home