Civil servants will have to wait for an unspecified period before they get a salary increase from the cash strapped government which is working on a remuneration framework being coordinated by the Office of the President and Cabinet.
This was said by finance minister Patrick Chinamasa during the presentation of the Mid-Term Policy Budget review Thursday.
Chinamasa said remuneration and benefits freeze are set to continue pending finalization of the new Public Sector Remuneration Framework.
“The office of the President is coordinating work towards the development of a consistent Remuneration Framework for boards and executive management at state enterprises, local authorities and other public entities that make a call on the fiscus.
“Current remuneration practices, inclusive of salaries, allowances and other perks, bear no relationship to performance across different entities.
“In this regard, a freeze on review of all remuneration and benefits is in place with effect from 1 January 2017 pending finalization of the new Public Sector Remuneration Framework,” Chinamasa said.
Chinamasa added that once the proposed frameworks have been approved, the Office of the President and Cabinet and the State Enterprises Restructuring Agency will assume the monitoring and evaluation role to ensure effective implementation.
In addition, Chinamasa said the wage bill was still too high and the government would continue to have restrictions on hiring and have continuous monitoring and audits to flush out ghost workers to reduce costs.
In 2016, employment costs amounted to US$2.63 billion from January to October, consuming 91 percent of the country’s revenue.
The government is, therefore, set to restrict budget expenditures to US$4.1 billion which represents 28.2 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
A general freeze on prices, fees and charges by public entities is also set to continue unless justified and considered on its merits.
According to the minister, this will include charges on water, rates, power, local taxes and environmental requirements among others.
The government has a financing gap of US$400 million with revenue collections amounting to US$3.7 billion and projected expenditures of US$4.1 billion.