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WAGE BILL SEES E30M REDUCTION

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MBABANE – The decision by government to stop the hiring of new employees is beginning to bear fruits.
As part of its austerity measures, the Prime Minister Ambrose Mandvulo Dlamini-led government implemented Circular No.3 of 2018, which ordered the freezing of vacant posts and creation of new posts in all government ministries and departments.


On Thursday, during the Editors Forum breakfast meeting, the prime minister had to field questions on whether this Circular had not had a negative effect on service delivery, especially in the education and health sectors.


In response, the PM said the Circular was not introduced to halt service delivery but as a cost saving measure.
Indeed, the latest update from the Ministry of Public Service indicates that this was an effective cost-cutting measure in as far as the government wage bill is concerned.


According to the performance report for the ministry, covering the past six months, implementation of the circular “was able to curb the wage bill and a 4 per cent net month to month reduction was realised, reflecting a compounded value of thirty (30) million Emalangeni over the past six months”.

the filling of vacancies


The ministry said its challenge, however, was that since the issuance of the Circular freezing the filling of vacancies and new appointments, it has been inundated with requests to fill vacancies from ministries and departments, citing difficulty executing their respective mandates effectively without the requested posts.


During the breakfast meeting on Thursday, the PM pointed out that it is provided in the same Circular where human capital is vital for effective service delivery, Cabinet would consider a request to fill that particular vacancy.
“As a result about a hundred health workers, including nurses and doctors, and over 1000 teachers have been hired since the Circular came into effect following Cabinet approval,” he said.


The ministry, on the other hand, has stated that they would continue monitoring the wage bill and come up with relevant recommendations.
Also, the ministry has also announced in its performance report that it has reviewed the in-service training cut-off age from 45 years to slightly above 50 years depending on the training duration.
As a challenge, though, the ministry said: “The currently available budget due to the obtaining fiscal position is no longer commensurate with the need for continuous capacity building.”
It said its focus area was the promotion of a culture of continuous learning and growth in the service to keep public officers relevant, motivated and embracing a culture of service excellence
Another success from the ministry is that as part of the espousal of Continuous Professional Development (CPD), a provision for PhD has been included in the In-Service Policy.
In this regard, it said two officers were currently enrolled for PhD studies, to strengthen the research capacity of the Ministry of Agriculture.
But it said the challenge was that the PhD programme was currently funded through development partner support and university fellowships only, as opposed to being provided for under the government budget.
Despite this, it pledged to continue providing advice on capacity building as one of the pertinent components of operational effectiveness in the public service.

promoting productivity
As a fourth success, the ministry cited the implementation and up-scaling of a Public Sector Wellness Programme with relevant initiatives, promoting productivity and excellence.

 

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