Government commits to early bonus payment

TREASURY has started working on modalities to ensure civil servants receive their annual bonuses as early as possible, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development Mr Willard Manungo has said. In an interview last week, Mr Manungo said despite falling revenues, Government was committed to paying its workforce the 13th cheque.

"The Government will always strive to ensure that we pay as early as possible, so l can give that assurance that the bonuses will be paid. But in terms of the timing, that will be announced by the Honourable Minister (Dr Ignatius Chombo) at the appropriate time," he said. In the past few years, due to revenue challenges facing the Government, civil servants have had their bonuses staggered, with the payment extending to the following year. Mr Manungo said Government remained committed to its obligations of incentivising its workers.

"What is important is that we have not defaulted on the payment of the public service bonuses, what has been happening is the balancing of situations in terms of managing the cash vis-a-vis the other Zim-Asset developmental requirements. Otherwise, we have honoured the payment of bonuses," he said. Mr Manungo said Government was also prioritising other developmental programmes aimed at growing the economy as it was unsustainable to spend most of its revenue on the wage bill.

Of late, Government has been trying to reduce the wage bill, which at the moment is consuming between 90 percent and 92 percent of revenues, by rationalising civil servants jobs. Mr Manungo said although Government was faced with resource challenges, civil servants had to be rewarded for their efforts. Government is also working on various incentives such as housing as part of efforts to incentivise its workforce.Recently, Government announced that it had started working a massive low and medium-income housing scheme that will benefit thousands of civil servants.