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in over improving their salaries or working conditions citing a depressed fiscus.
Both ministers, and the party they are drawn from, have – however – been mum over the deleterious effects the illegal economic sanctions have had on Government’s capacity to pay its workers.
The country is currently in the middle of an anti-sanctions petition campaign aimed at gathering at least two million signatures but MDC-T leaders and their supporters have not thrown their weight behind the campaign or publicly called for the removal of the ruinous sanctions.
Finance Minister Tendai Biti yesterday said Government does not have capacity to raise civil servants’ salaries while his Public Service counterpart Eliphas Mukonoweshuro said Government has failed to raise non-monetary incentives promised to civil servants because Government is broke.
Minister Mukonoweshuro promised to unveil the incentives such as a housing loan guarantee scheme, mobility scheme (revolving car loans) and a pension fund for civil servants among other incentives.
However, in an interview last weekend, Minister Mukonoweshuro was “singing a different tune”, saying that some financial institutions were now willing to assist civil servants with non-monetary incentives.
However, the Government would not guarantee the loan facilities.
Presenting a report yesterday on the state of the economy in the first quarter, Minister Biti said the economy had performed badly in the first three months and judging by the poor showing, treasury had no resources to fund an increase of State workers’ salaries and elections.
He indicated that Government had only collected US$656 million against a target of US$690 million and raised fears that at this rate, the treasury could plunge into a US$150 million deficit.
Minister Biti claimed that a civil service audit unearthed the existence of 13 000 ghost workers who should be struck off the Government payroll.
He added that there was an additional 62 000 Government workers with unclear positions, whose status in the civil service needed to be verified.
Improving transparency in the handling of diamond revenues from Marange, timeous remittance of the same and reduction on current account expenditure would create fiscus space for the salaries, he said.
“There is need for greater transparency on diamond revenue and remittance as well and not fighting for the release of the money,” said Minister Biti.
He said Government should also reduce current account expenditure and enhance exports to save funds for state workers’ salaries.
Of the US$519 million expenditure since January, the Government spent about 60 percent on recurrent expenditure and staff related expenses.
Total exports in the first quarter amounted to US$2,7 billion against imports of US$4 billion, which makes Zimbabwe a net importer.
Early this month, President Mugabe promised civil servants a significant salary increase in June this year.
He said workers should expect an increase of about 100 percent of the current earnings. The least paid State worker is taking home about US$130.
Minister Mukonoweshuro said a number of financial institutions and building societies approached showed their willingness to support the loan facilities, but bemoaned the fact that Government did not have the resources to give the financiers as security.
“The reason why it (loan facility) has not been functioning is not because there has been a change of policy . . . the challenge is simply resources to guarantee these loans.
“There is no doubt that the very moment resources are made available, we will immediately make the loans available to our workers as we value their immense work for the country,” he said.
The minister declined to disclose the names of the financial institutions he was working with.
The sudden U-turn by the minister has made observers view his initial promise as a cheap political gimmick because he knew from the onset that the Inclusive Government had no capacity to provide such guarantees to all civil servants.
Civil servants representatives last Friday said they had not yet received any feedback from Minister Mukonoweshuro since the incentives were proposed last year.
Said Minister Mukonoweshuro: “Yes, financial institutions are not few, they are there, willing to chip in but the resources that Government has to use as guarantee are meagre.
“It has always been our wish since the Kariba workshop last year to give our workers those incentives while Cabinet has agreed on the issue of giving loans but the problem is the low performing economy.
“A start haSs already been made by the US$6 million we offered them in the last financial year for housing loans and we are striving to put more,” he said.

“Admittedly, the money is not enough but this is a major stride and sign that Government is sensitive to the needs of its workers.”
Minister Mukonoweshuro said once resources were made available, Government would implement the policy.
The issue of incentives, the minister said, had always been there since 1980, adding that was how the majority of the civil servants got houses and cars.
He added that now the Government’s intention was to simply resuscitate the schemes.
Zimbabwe Teachers Association chief executive officer Mr Sifiso Ndlovu said they were still waiting for feedback from MinisterMukonoweshuro.
“We were promised the non-monetary incentives long back but up to date we have been told nothing on the progress.
“We are still waiting,” he said.
In his October interview, Minister Mukonowe-shuro said he would announce an array of incentives designed to establish job security for civil servants and bring them at par with their counterparts in the private sector.
“Before Christmas, we aim to resume the housing loan guarantee scheme, mobility scheme and create a pension fund for civil servants among other things,” said the Minister then.
He said the incentives were mainly targeted at low ranking civil servants, because in the past there had been complaints that benefit schemes rarely cascaded to the lower echelons of the civil service.
On the pension fund, Public Service Commission chairperson, Dr Mariyawanda Nzuwa, said the Government had not established the scheme and Treasury was currently paying pensioners from taxes it was raising from people.
Dr Nzuwa said this in February this year while giving oral evidence before a portfolio committee on Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare chaired by Mazowe South MP, Cde Margaret Zinyemba.
Dr Nzuwa said the offer of non-monetary incentives was the only way forward to pacify restive civil servants in light of the fact that Government was broke.