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Tinashe Farawo—
ALL the country’s parastatals have submitted performance contracts detailing their salaries and benefits to the Chief Secretary in the Office of the President and Cabinet for scrutiny following indications that heads of some of the entities were raking in outrageously high monthly incomes above US$200 000.

The packages, which were handed in before a deadline set for last Wednesday, will be realigned where necessary.
Secretary for Information, Media and Broadcasting Services Cde George Charamba told The Sunday Mail on Friday that the submission of the contracts and salary schedules was in line with a new Government policy aimed at improving the performance of struggling parastatals. He would not, however, be drawn into revealing the salaries, saying “the idea is not to embarrass anyone”.

“Yes, I can confirm all the parastatal bosses have submitted their salary schedules and benefits, in fact the whole package. This is in line with the new policy on conditions of service for parastatals. The whole package will be looked at. This is also in line with the country’s economic blueprint, Zim Asset, which requires public officials to have performance contracts.” The salaries and benefits of parastatal bosses have raised concern after it emerged that most of the chief executives were earning inflated incomes while their respective entities remained in the doldrums.

The Government moved swiftly to deal with the matter and will make determinations after examining the parastatals’ schedules.
Last week, Information, Media and Broadcasting Services Minister Professor Jonathan Moyo said Government would act on the hefty salaries and allowances.

“So, we have to deal with these things, especially where people have awarded themselves these salaries and these salaries are coming either from subscriptions of the public or from fees paid by the public or from tax,” said Prof Moyo while addressing students attending Joint Command and Staff Course Number 27 in Harare .

“What is unfortunate in one way and fortunate in another way is that the corrupt salaries are in the public sector.
“We have false salaries or even corrupt salaries which have serious implications.” Last year, the Government slashed the salaries and benefits of town clerks by 50 percent.

The local authorities also submitted their performance contracts to Government and their salaries are expected to be made public this week.