Maravi

(HERALD) Parastatals must generate own salaries

Parastatals must generate own salaries

THE concern by the Minister for State Enterprises and Parastatals Gorden Moyo about the supposedly high salaries being paid by some State enterprises is valid. Zimbabwe is emerging from a very difficult time economically where people were virtually earning nothing. The temptation is high for managers in those organisations making a bit of money to want to get rich quickly.

But these are just a few. Salaries in most of the private sector are just slightly higher than those paid in the civil service. This means most workers are still earning far below what they are worth.

Whilst the employers may want to pay more, the ability to pay is just not there given the low production and revenue levels.

This is what weakens the case of these parastatals and State enterprises. Most of them are saddled with serious debts and are struggling to provide proper services. Their inefficiencies are weighing down industry and commerce and frustrating the general public.
Government is therefore justified in seeking to instill financial discipline and demand accountability from the boards and management of these organisations. After all, it is the same organisations that will soon be rushing to Treasury seeking a Government bail out.

Organisations such as Zesa, National Railways of Zimbabwe, Air Zimbabwe and the various municipalities are so critical in deciding whether Zimbabwe moves forward or not. The government cannot afford to let them collapse neither can it watch as the country is plunged into darkness because electricity has not been imported or see refuse piling up or water tapes running dry.

To keep the wheels of the economy running these parastatals and State enterprises must be run efficiently.

This means they need skilled manpower and top-notch managers. These do not come cheap.

An organisation like Zesa revolves around engineers. The chief executive is almost always an engineer.

These are people whose skills are in high demand elsewhere in the world. The only way to keep them in Zimbabwe is to pay them world market salaries, which perhaps explains why their salaries are as high as US$ 11 000 a month as we reported on Thursday.

So, in seeking to bring financial discipline to these organisations, Minister Moyo has to consider what similar organisations are paying their people in South Africa, Botswana, Australia and other countries that are notorious for attracting our skilled manpower. Focus should be on retaining existing skills and attracting those that left and not losing what we have now.

Another area to look at closely is that of increasing the revenue of these organisations. This means they must be allowed to charge the right prices for their products and services. They should also be freed to collect money owed to them by consumers. If Zesa, for example, was allowed to freely collect what it is owed by consumers, then it should be able to afford the salaries it is paying without compromising service delivery.

Yet another area to look at is the number of people in these organisations. Most of them are bloated and have been struggling to retrench. They could do with less people who they can pay market salaries.

The fact that Government itself is failing to pay its workers market salaries does not mean it should stop parastatals and State enterprises from paying their workers and managers well. But they must generate the income and not expect any bail out from central Government.

Labels: PARASTATALS

posted by MrK @ 4:11 AM