CIVIL SERVANTS’ BACK PAY COSTS TAXPAYER E268M

MBABANE – It has cost the taxpayer a handsome E268 million to foot the bill for the four months bumper back pay for civil servants.

This was confirmed by Evart Madlopha, the Principal Secretary (PS) in the Ministry of Public Service, in an interview yesterday.
Madlopha said such money would not in any way upset the national budget for the year 2014/2015.
“This kind of money was budgeted for in the current fiscal year,” he emphasised. “It’s not like, as government, we didn’t know about the pending back pay.”

The E268m emanates from the 6.5 per cent cost of living adjustment implemented on the salaries for civil servants and politicians.
The effective date for the back pay, according to the PS, is April to July this year.
Madlopha clarified that the salaries for the current month (August) reflected the implementation of the 6.5 per cent.
The principal secretary stressed that there was nothing unusual with the E268m spent on catering for the back pay for civil servants and politicians.

Budget

“Having such kind of money in place effectively means we did not need any supplementary budget,” he stated.
Madlopha is the Chief Negotiator of the Government Negotiation Team (GNT) while Secretary to Cabinet Mbuso Dlamini is the Chairman.
A majority of the civil servants are expected to bag home their back pay before the end of the week.

Politicians are expected to be remunerated today.
The Prime Minister Sibusiso Barnabas Dlamini-led Cabinet, Parliament (Members of Parliament and senators) and regional administrators are classified as politicians.

Benefitted

The members of the various councils and committees have also benefitted from the implementation of the 6.5 per cent cost of living adjustment.
Such councils include the Swaziland National Council (Liqoqo) and Ludzidzini Council.

Liqoqo is an advisory council to His Majesty King Mswati III.
The committees are the Border Restoration Committee and Land Management Board.
 

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