CIVIL servants yesterday expressed anger after failing to
access their US$75 allowances as promised by the government, accusing their
employer of being insincere.
Government last month promised civil servants a cushioning
allowance of US$75 for the next three months and ordered employees to open
nostro bank accounts to access the funds.
However, the civil servants yesterday said they were
failing to access the promised funds with Finance minister Mthuli Ncube saying
banks would not be allowed to release hard currency to individuals.
“The systems are ready for civil servants to get the US$75
from the special foreign currency accounts which were opened. The process has
been completed now and the banks have said they are ready to issue cards for
use in the shops,” Mthuli told Senate yesterday.
“However, we do not want individuals to withdraw cash from
banks for the US$75 allowance because we are concerned as a government that it
will end up in the parallel market.”
This came as Information permanent secretary Ndavaningi
Mangwana accused banks of compelling civil servants to liquidate their
allowances within the bank.
“Some unscrupulous banks are impelling civil servants to
liquidate their US$75 within the bank, in the process shamelessly mopping up
forex from poor workers. Civil servants are supposed to be given cards which
they can use in participating retail outlets as they please,” Mangwana said.
The Apex Council, an umbrella body for civil servants
unions said there was no clear explanation on the allowances they were supposed
to get.
“There is no adequate information on the ground as to
exactly what to do. If I go to my bank, what should I expect?
This has created a lot of confusion. We now don’t know whether
this is real or not. If you go to a bank, you are told that you can convert the
amount into RTGS [Real Time Gross Settlement], then transfer it into your
Zimdollar account,” Apex Council spokesperson David Dzatsunga said.
“They said they would give a hybrid card that would reflect
the Zimdollar balance and US dollar balance. They said it’s something they are
working on and while they are doing that, it is not clear. They are different
scenarios without a clear message out there.
“We have always said this is a government initiative of
which it was not arrived at out of any consultative process. So, they will
always tell us that it has always been our decision, so you cannot tell us how
to manage it.
The only thing we are waiting for is for the government to
call us to the table and we discuss the real issues.”
Contacted for comment, Bankers Association of Zimbabwe
president Ralph Watungwa told NewsDay that shortage of bank cards and “strict
instructions” from Treasury not to disburse the US$75 as cash were behind the
delays.
“Imagine you have a sweet shop and only have two tonnes of
sweets in store, then a big businessman walks into your shop wanting to
purchase six tonnes, obviously you won’t be able to service the order. When the
announcement of the US$75 for civil servants was made which is meant to fund
cards for shopping for civil servants, naturally some banks did not have enough
cards,” he said.
“Remember, there are 300 000 civil servants and some do not
have nostro accounts, so these accounts needed to be created. When Treasury
funded the banks with the US dollars to pay civil servants, the US$75, which
was done last week, some workers needed new cards. So, the problem here is
logistics as banks would need to create the cards.”
He said instances where some banks were converting the
US$75 into Zimdollars at official forex rates and disbursing to clients were at
the behest of the depositor.
“The instances you speak of, where the US$75 is being
converted into Zimbabwe dollars at the official forex rate, are only after the
clients would have pleaded with the bank to take such an action,” Watungwa
said.
“Remember, we as banks have communication from the Treasury
that the US$75 is not supposed to be given to civil servants as cash, so we are
in discussions with the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe about how best to give clients
the money who cannot wait for the cards.”
He said they expected all civil servants to be able to
access their monies in 30 days.
“Remember, all the materials needed to make the cards need
to be imported,” Watungwa said.
Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe president Takavafira
Zhou accused banks of deducting money from the allowance.
“The rate of exchange is very low in banks and because
civil servants are being forced to get their money in RTGS, which is also
coming to them already deducted, this shows there is a deliberate robbing of
civil servants while they tried to make it look like it’s beneficial, but in
actual fact, it is not effective,” he said. Newsday
0 comments:
Post a Comment