Allowances to retain skilled civil servants Dr Tsitsi Choruma

Wallace Ruzvidzo

Herald Reporter

Implementation of the first phase of the retention allowances payments to civil servants under the Skills Attraction, Retention and Development Fund (SARDF) has now been started in a show of commitment by the Second Republic to retaining critical skills.

This first phase will target 11 categories of critical skills with total pay benchmarked to local and regional earning levels, as the Public Service Commission sets its sights on attracting highly competent professionals into Government service.

Grades from deputy director and below will be eligible for the allowances.

Treasury had allocated $1,512 billion for the SARDF to pay the retention allowances.

In a statement yesterday, commission secretary Dr Tsitsi Choruma said Government was committed to ensuring critical skills are attracted, developed and retained.

Engineers, information and communication technology specialists, mining surveyors, forensic scientists, architects, veterinary officers, quantity surveyors, social development officers, psychologists, metallurgists, and legal drafters make up the 11 categories.

Dr Choruma said the allowance was set at 70 percent of the basic salary of the member’s grade.

However, Dr Choruma said the allowances would be revised and more categories would be added as more resources were availed.

She said the move had been necessitated by the shortage of personnel to fill the posts.

“The identification of jobs was based on the high level of attrition in these categories and also the difficulty in filling the posts once a vacancy arises.

“The retention allowance for the job categories has been benchmarked using the salary levels obtaining on the market as observed from different salary surveys both locally and regionally.

“As additional resources become available, more jobs will be added to the list, and the retention allowance improved,” she said.

The fund is mandated to attract skills and competencies necessary to drive the devolved structures of Government and bring into reality the devolution and decentralisation agenda as well as strengthening the capacity of the commission to retain critical skills as well as prevent skills flight.

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