Council bosses still earning mega salaries

Harare City Council senior management is still earning mega salaries in defiance of a Government directive to slash them, it emerged yesterday.

The city fathers are yet to agree on a new pay schedule for top management, which gobbles over $500 000 a month in salaries and benefits.

This was revealed by Town Clerk Dr Tendai Mahachi, when he appeared before the Portfolio Committee on Local Government, Rural and Urban Development yesterday, where he presented the current schedule of the city's top brass.

"This (schedule) was effective from last March. We met with the minister (Ignatius Chombo) about two weeks ago where the minister was simply saying certain allowances are not relevant anymore but we agreed that the basic salary remains the same," Dr Mahachi said.

"He (Minister Chombo) then asked us to come up with a new schedule so this is an old schedule and we have not yet agreed on the new schedule but there are going to be reductions because some of the allowances will go away."

There was outrage from city residents early this month after it emerged the management gobbled over $500 000 monthly in salaries with the Town Clerk earning over $37 000 while directors and their deputies bagged salaries ranging from $33 000 to $36 000.

According to the schedule presented to parliament yesterday, Dr Mahachi who is in Grade 1 receives a basic salary of $14 000, a retention and entertainment allowances of $1 400, housing allowance of $4 200, bringing his total earnings to $21 000.

He is also entitled to one regional holiday destination and another one locally for a six-day period annually with all expenses paid for by the financially hum-strung council, including out of pocket allowances whose value was not indicated.

He is also entitled to a vehicle with a 4,2 litre engine capacity that will be replaced after every five years and sold to him at book value.

The directors, who are in Grade 2 also earn a basic salary of $12 600, retention and entertainment allowances of $1 200 each and housing allowance of $3 780 to bring their total earnings to $18 900.

The deputy directors who are in Grade 3 earn a basic salary of $8 347, retention and entertainment allowances of $834,77 each and housing allowance of $2 504, 32 to earn a total of $12 522 monthly.

The directors in Grades 2-3 are also entitled to a vehicle with an engine capacity between 3,2 and 3,9 litres that is also replaced every five years and sold to them at book value.

The managers in Grade 4 earn a basic salary of $6 654,01, retention allowance and housing allowances of $1 993,20 and entertainment of $664,40 to bring it to $9 301, 81 monthly.

The schedule also indicated that all the management receive school fees for a maximum of three children based on the invoice value of the respective schools the children attend.

A director can send a child to foreign schools and universities.

Buhera South legislator Joseph Chinotimba, then asked whether they would receive the salaries as outlined in the schedule this month since a new one had not been adopted.

Said Dr Mahachi: "The salaries will not be paid until we have agreed on the new schedule which will also be signed by the minister."

A number of legislators in the committee queried why there were no figures on the allowances or limits especially for school fees with Mr Mahachi saying these were determined by the salary of each individual.

This prompted the chairperson of the committee, Irene Zindi, to rule that Mr Mahachi leave and return to parliament with a schedule that had figures on all the allowances that are due to the city's top management.

The city has 60 people between Grades 1-4 and Mr Mahachi said they were working on cutting the figure to 35, while similar cuts would be made to the general staff that are pegged at 6 500.