News / National
Ex-mayor defends town clerk's obscene pay
13 Mar 2014 at 06:11hrs | Views
EX-HARARE mayor Muchadeyi Masunda has defended salaries paid to senior officials at Town House, but said he had issues with allowances which he claimed were approved by Local Government minister Ignatius Chombo's successive caretaker commissions without input from elected councillors.
Masunda made the remarks on Tuesday during a Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR)-organised public meeting where residents demanded to know if he had approved the alleged "obscene salaries and allowances" earned by the council's top executives.
"When we came into office in 2008, there was already a remuneration system put in place and on the basis of what was exhibited to me by (Town Clerk Tendai) Mahachi, there was nothing untoward with the basic salaries that were being paid," he said.
The former mayor said that the salaries were justified as they suited favourably with the qualifications of the individuals.
"You can't get a top-notch water engineer unless you pay. One of the problems was the allowances by the commissions put in place to run the city in the absence of elected or appointed mayors and these are the allowances that I, with the assistance of my councillors, addressed," he said.
"Unless something happened after my stint, the packages being reported about are patently untrue."
Masunda accused some unnamed politicians of turning Town House into a dumping ground where they posted their trusted colleagues and in the process pushed up the local authority's wage bill.
"If you look at the numbers, there was a bloated structure of 11 887 workers when we started. It was a dumping ground for a number of politicians.
"People had to be employed on the basis of pieces of paper," he said.
The issue of Town House managers' mega-salaries has raised a storm among residents and MPs who are demanding that they be made public.
On Tuesday, Parliament ordered Mahachi to present his current pay slip at its next sitting after the council boss evaded most questions centred on the matter.
Masunda made the remarks on Tuesday during a Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR)-organised public meeting where residents demanded to know if he had approved the alleged "obscene salaries and allowances" earned by the council's top executives.
"When we came into office in 2008, there was already a remuneration system put in place and on the basis of what was exhibited to me by (Town Clerk Tendai) Mahachi, there was nothing untoward with the basic salaries that were being paid," he said.
The former mayor said that the salaries were justified as they suited favourably with the qualifications of the individuals.
"You can't get a top-notch water engineer unless you pay. One of the problems was the allowances by the commissions put in place to run the city in the absence of elected or appointed mayors and these are the allowances that I, with the assistance of my councillors, addressed," he said.
Masunda accused some unnamed politicians of turning Town House into a dumping ground where they posted their trusted colleagues and in the process pushed up the local authority's wage bill.
"If you look at the numbers, there was a bloated structure of 11 887 workers when we started. It was a dumping ground for a number of politicians.
"People had to be employed on the basis of pieces of paper," he said.
The issue of Town House managers' mega-salaries has raised a storm among residents and MPs who are demanding that they be made public.
On Tuesday, Parliament ordered Mahachi to present his current pay slip at its next sitting after the council boss evaded most questions centred on the matter.
Source - newsday
