SD on brink of collapse -IMF

MBABANE – The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has sent a strong warning to the Swaziland government on its continued ‘reckless’ expenditure.

The IMF met with the Finance Committee last week where the former made it known that Swaziland was spending too much on paying salaries to civil servants.

Finance Committee chairman MP Marwick Khumalo last Friday informed Parliament that the IMF was concerned that civil servants’ salaries consume about 54 per cent of the country’s budget.
“We met with the IMF team on Wednesday and it must be said that they were not happy with Swaziland and a red flag was raised. The team said Swaziland was on the brink of collapsing because money was being wasted on paying government personnel and those in leadership positions,” MP Khumalo told Parliament.

The IMF, according to Khumalo, warned of tough times ahead as the country was also faced with dwindling SACU receipts and therefore could not afford to continue spending money on salaries for personnel.

This is not the first time that the IMF has sent such a warning to Swaziland as it previously advised the country to cut down on its number of government employees.
This advice has not been heeded, however, as the Prime Minister, Sibusiso Barnabas Dlamini, when taking up office, promised there would be no retrenchments or anything of that nature. The PM instead promised that all vacant government posts would be filled and this includes temporary teachers whom government has since engaged on a full time basis.

Interestingly, the PM is a former employee of the IMF, an organisation he served until he was appointed to the premiership position in the late 90s.
When MP Khumalo delivered the IMF warning to Parliament on Friday, MPs questioned him on the advice that the Finance Committee had for government after having considered all the information supplied by the international financial watchdog.   

 
“Since the IMF has raised these concerns, what would be the Finance Committee’s advice to the country,” Mhlambanyatsi MP Petros Mavimbela queried.
MP Khumalo said they (Finance Committee) would soon bring their advice to the House for deliberation.