Biti won't back Chinamasa's plan to reduce public sector wage bill

THE MDC Renewal party says it will not support planned constitutional changes aimed at reducing the public sector wage bill, insisting that the government is concentrating on dealing with symptoms not the causes of the challenges facing the country.

Finance and Economic Development Minister Patrick Chinamasa last week revealed that significant changes to the Constitution, which was adopted in 2013, were planned as the government seeks to trim a bloated public sector payroll that gobbles around 92 percent of the annual budget.

Chinamasa said the number of legislators was disproportionate to Zimbabwe's population. He also suggested that various constitutional bodies such as commissions and government agencies could be disbanded.

The constitutional amendment would require support from two thirds of MPs. Zanu-PF has the necessary majority to push through the changes, but Tendai Biti, the secretary general of MDC Renewal says the ruling party should not expect support from their 21 MPs.

Biti, a former Minister of Finance who also grappled with the suffocating public sector wage bill, said it was not the constitution that was causing the economic crisis in the country, but the non-performing economy.

"It's not the constitution that is causing this crisis. It's the fact that there are no industries, there's no production in the country, companies are closed, a majority of people in the country aren't employed, nothing is coming from the farms and the Growth Domestic Product (GDP) is at 0,2 percent growth rate," Biti said.

"The country needs to deal with the issue of demand before it can deal with the expenditure."

Biti claimed that since leaving the government in 2012, the civil service had not shrunk but had expanded from nearly 230,000 workers to 550,000 last year.

Public Service Minister Priscah Mupfumira last night said this was a gross exaggeration, although she did not readily have the exact figures.

Biti said even if the government reduces the number of its employees, it would still struggle to pay the remaining workers.

"Even if the government fires everybody, it wouldn't achieve anything if nothing is done about the economy," he said.

Chinamasa suggested the government would not be able to fulfil the constitutional requirement to set up provincial councils, without saying whether the proposals to amend the constitution would demand their abolishment.

Biti, while emphasising the importance of commissions and the provincial councils, said Zimbabwe could do with less MPs and Senators.

"Before the constituion was adopted, we argued that the country couldn't sustain more than 100 members of the National Assembly, but Zanu-PF refused," Biti said.

"Now they're trying to shift because they've realised their mistake, but this problem could have been avoided before the adoption of the constitution."

Biti also urged the government to deal with ghost workers, saying only 30 percent of the budget should go to salaries.

"Under normal circumstances, the wage bill should take 30 percent from the revenue and eight percent of the GDP. But in Zimbabwe 92 percent of the revenue and 30 percent of the GDP are going to salaries, which isn't sustainable," he explained.

"The government should deal with thousands of ghost workers in the system and this requires the political will to do so."

Zimbabwe has seven independent commissions as provided for by Chapter 12 of the new Constitution. These are the Electoral, Human Rights, Gender, Media, National Peace and Reconciliation, Land and Anti-Corruption commissions.

Only the Media and Electoral commissions are fully functional as the government searches for resources to operationalise the other five.

Apart from at least eight commissioners for each body, there should also be secretariats, offices and budgets to carry out their mandates. All of this is to be funded by Treasury.

The country has 210 directly elected National Assembly representatives and another 60 women who enter the House via the proportional representation system until 2023.

The Senate consists of 80 members.

The provincial and metropolitan councils were created by Chapter 13 of the new Constitution, but these have not yet been set up.

The new Constitution was signed into law in March 2013 ahead of the July 31 elections which saw President Robert Mugabe being swept back into power by an overwhelming majority.