GOVERNMENT is reportedly pampering senior civil servants in the education sector by giving them travel and subsistence allowances pegged in United States dollars (US$), a development that has sparked outrage among teachers.
NewsDay has gathered that the senior officials who include
provincial school inspectors and district school inspectors are benefiting from
per diems which are not applicable to ordinary teachers, a situation that has
resulted in discrepancies in earnings within the education sector.
The senior officers reportedly get allowances of up to
US$125 per day, which is paid in local currency for attending meetings,
chairing disciplinary meetings and other events in the education ministry.
Ordinary teachers do not benefit from such allowances.
Teachers who spoke to NewsDay accused government of
offering perks to the senior education officers to encourage them to intimidate
and gag teachers against demanding better salaries.
Teachers have been demanding full salaries in US$ owing to
the country’s rising cost of living.
“A layer of elite civil servants is being created to
strengthen ‘supervision’ of the majority of civil servants,” Amalgamated Rural
Teachers Union of Zimbabwe president Obert Masaraure claimed.
“That layer is enjoying special perks and is being deployed
to scuttle any collective job actions.
Government has divided teachers through the introduction of a layer of
teachers who are promised to enjoy economic privileges, professional exceptionalism
and social protection. The group named Teachers for ED is being used as a
vehicle to bastardise trade unionism.”
Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe secretary-general
Raymond Majongwe said: “Senior officials in the Education ministry get per
diems on several occasions during the course of the month while teachers are in
class, working.
“What is worrisome is that government realised the need to
peg the allowances in United States dollars, which is to cushion them from
inflation, but we have been for long requesting our salaries in United States
dollars with government turning a deaf ear to our request.
As a result, the senior officials are pocketing way more
what teachers are earning, which is somewhat demoralising teachers in class.”
Education ministry spokesperson Taungana Ndoro said there
was nothing amiss in giving allowances to senior members because it was the
norm across all other government departments, as well as in the private sector.
“The allowances may be pegged in US$, but government pays
them in local currency at the prevailing interbank rate,” Ndoro said.
“If they get an allowance in US dollars, it would be (from)
our development partners who include the British Council, Unicef or World
Vision, among others. Those can pay them in US dollars and we can’t stop
them. The issue of allowances applies
everywhere else. What is different is
salary earnings which are graded such that those with high grades earn more
than those at lower ranks.”
Civil servants have been raising concerns over salary
discrepancies in the civil service, which has been described as a divide and
rule tactic to quash their US$ salary demands. Newsday
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