Wednesday 13 November 2019

SHOCKING RTGS$5 A NIGHT CHARGE AT 13 GOVT TRAINING CENTRES

The Government’s economic ineptitude has come to the fore again after it emerged that its 13 state of the art training centres dotted around the country are charging RTGS$5 for accommodation per person per night.


This is at a time when lodges and hotels of their standards are charging RTGS$880 per night. Most of the hotels are charging $2 200 per night. The charges are so ludicrous that they are giving a big strain on the cash- strapped Government.

The training institutions which are owned by the Public Service Commission are being used by private companies to book their staff for key training workshops. In some cases groups of people on holiday book the facilties.

The 13 institutes which are run by the Public Service Commission are Avord, Bikita, Toronto, Ruwa, Domboshava, Senga, Elan- geni, Eskhovheni, Chinhoyi, Highlands, Murehwa, Inyati and Thuli.

An investigation by The Mirror in which the reporter paused as someone who wanted to book accommodation for a workshop showed that the majorityof the training institutions charged RTGS$5 while a few charged RTGS$10.

All the principals talked to said that they did not know when Government is going to review the fees.

Public Service Commmission Secretary Ambassador Jonathan Wutawunashe said ”Institutes charge rates that are approvedby Treasury. In view of changesin the operating enviroment, PSC proposal to review accomodation rates significantly is already under consideration by Treasury and it is expected that new rates will shortly be in force.”

Efforts to get a comment from the Treasury chief Mthuli Ncube were futile.
RTGS$5 is now the equivalence of US33c at the current market exchange rates.

The principals at these institutions who talked to The Mirror said the charges are so meaningless the colleges cannot buy three packets of washing powder after booking 50 people for a night. A 2kg packet of BOOM washing powder costs $93 at OK Supermarket.

“We need to do laundry for sheets every day. We need to buy detergents for toilets, we need floor polish and pay Zinwa for water that the guests are using and the net effect is that we are provid- ing service for free and soon these institutions will be run down,” said a principal without realizing that he was speaking to the Press.

“The cost for accommodation is $5 but it will be reviewed as promised by the Government, we don’t know when this will happen,” said one of the principals.
Masvingo Mirror

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