'Civil service retrenchment has started,' says Chinamasa

THE Finance and Economic Development Minister, Patrick Chinamasa has indicated that the Zimbabwean government has already begun to restructure the country's civil service in an exercise expected to half the public sector wage bill by 2020, The Source reported.

Speaking at a meeting with business to discuss the 2017 budget on Friday, Chinamasa said the need to reduce salaries, benefits and the work force in parastatals was more than glaring.

"We have already started the process (restructuring), but it may seem slow to some of you because you are expecting a Big Bang….change is always difficult, but I am glad that the whole government system is now on the same page…they fully acknowledge what needs to be done," he said.

"It may take us up to 2019-2020, by then I am confident we should have been able to reduce the wage bill to something like 50 to 55 percent of total expenditure. If we proceed on the bases at which we are already proceeding, we can do it," he added

This year public sector employment costs are seen at US$3,14 billion from a budget envelope of US$4,1 billion, which is about 91 percent, but will drop by US$140 million to US$3 billion, 73 percent of the 2017 budget.