The Sunday News
Vincent Gono
THE Government is going to continue shedding off the number of civil servants as it moves to reduce the bloated civil service wage bill and improve efficiency as well as align the public service which is currently top heavy to a leaner and effective service.
This is in line with the national development thrust for Zimbabwe to become an upper middle-income economy by 2030 as espoused in the Transitional Stabilisation Programme (TSP).
“The TSP envisages the shedding of excess staff in the public service in order to create a leaner and effective civil service,” notes the Government in the document.
This is going to be achieved through retiring those that have reached retirement age as well as a robust restructuring exercise in the civil service aimed at making it fit for purpose and enhancing its efficiency.
According to the TSP, which is a transformational document that lays the economic route that Government is going to follow, the current civil service is too large and costly, and operates at sub-optimal levels of productivity.
“The civil service is too large and costly, and it operates at sub-optimal levels of productivity. Line ministries, and their departments and agencies are manned by many people — in some instances going under the moniker of ghost workers — in excess of their requirements to deliver goods and services.
“The civil service is over-extended, with many departments and agencies charged with too broad a span of responsibilities which, in an efficient and cost effective modern State must be performed by other actors,” reads part of the TSP.
The programme, which was formulated by the new political administration, spells out initiatives and programmes aimed at transforming the economy through prioritising fiscal consolidation, economic stabilisation, stimulation of growth and creation of employment. In line with the letter and spirit of the document President Mnangagwa last week said Government was going to adopt a biometric register for civil servants to plug out financial leakages to non-existent workers commonly known as ghost workers.
The transformational programme says financial costs on the tax payer of the large civil service are unsustainably high, as demonstrated by a wage bill constituting too high a proportion of total Government revenue. The wage bill according to the document constitutes 47 percent of total fiscal spending, compared to 30 percent for sub-Saharan Africa in 2016. It says capital spending stands at 18 percent compared to 28 percent, respectively.
“The structure of the civil service is top heavy, with large numbers of senior grade appointments that are disproportionate to the number of extant line ministries, and their departments and agencies. The position is the same when comparison is made to the sizes of public services and economies in comparator countries in sub-Saharan Africa.
“Government must, therefore, create a structure that is fit for purpose through a combination of retiring officers who have reached their mandatory retirement ages; the appointment of principal directors where exceptionally merited; and the alignment of ministerial mandates into more integrated and cognate clusters that will result in fewer line ministries, and their departments and agencies,” notes the Government as it unpacks its road map to a transformed civil service.
It lays bare some truths noting that the civil service is insufficiently productive and exhibits a work ethic and mindset that must be aligned to the national development thrust articulated in vision 2030 for Zimbabwe to become an upper middle-income economy.
“In the main, the perception is that the efficiency and effectiveness of the civil service in driving national service delivery and development initiatives, must be enhanced in line with the principles of Results Based Planning and Management. Where merited, the employees who are due for retirement, and whose knowledge, skills and competencies are still needed must be retained on the basis of strict performance-based annual contracts under a Retired Employee Retention Scheme.”
The Government acknowledges however, that it will support the affected staff with skills and experience gained over the years to put them in good stead to transition. This will be done through providing tools and resources, including targeted re-skilling, re-training and re-employment programmes that match individual skills and experience with opportunities available in the market to ensure they contribute towards the new socio-economic development trajectory of the country.
“Those who wish to engage in productive activities will be assisted in accessing market-based financing windows, with Government providing the necessary guarantees, including tax incentives,” reads part of the programme document.
The Transitional Stabilisation Programme further notes that there is an imperative need to recalibrate the civil service to propel the country to greater heights of prosperity for all citizens. According to the Government its mission should be guided and inspired by a shared commitment to facilitate the establishment of public institutions that are fit to serve citizens and consumers of all their services with integrity and utmost courtesy.
“The reform of the civil service is, therefore, pivotal to the transformation of Zimbabwe into an industrialising and knowledge-based upper middle-income country that is capable of providing a sustainable and high quality of life to all its citizens by 2030. At the operational level, the reform of the civil service is targeted to change its existing orientation, structure, functioning, temperament, performance, efficiency and ethical base as the vital cog that is charged with the planning, implementation and improvement of national welfare and achievement of the development results and outcomes for all citizens,” notes the TSP.
The Government is however, not entirely insensitive and blind to the remuneration challenges and conditions of service faced by the civil servants.
“Notwithstanding the relatively large size of the civil service wage bill, employees in the civil service tend to be poorly motivated in that remuneration scales are low, and conditions of service inadequate. Similarly, the tools of trade, equipment and facilities for public servants also remain inadequate in comparison to those for equivalent posts and institutions in the private sector, and frequently in parastatals, State enterprises, and in the region.”
The Government said it is going to work around such challenges saying the imperative for the TSP is to reposition, re-dimension and pivot the civil service to become a more efficient and cost-effective vehicle to deliver national development results and outcomes.
The thrust according to the Government is to rethink the focus, purpose, operating space and size of the civil service; and to improve the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of its overall structure, mindset, operating systems and performance at national, provincial and district levels.
