This comes as
the Government is expected to complete payments of staggered Special
Presidential bonuses of US$150 to members of the Public Service, including the
uniformed forces, pensioners and traditional leaders, which will be paid by the
end of this month.
Finance,
Economic Development and Investment Promotion Minister Professor Mthuli Ncube
told the National Assembly last week during the 2026 National Budget debate
that Treasury will also have to cater for a salary adjustment for its civil servants.
During the
debate, legislators had called on Treasury to increase funding to various
Government projects, such as Basic Education Assistance Module, social
services, among others and proposed that money could be drawn from Unallocated
Reserves.
These are
contingent funds or a pool of funds set aside during the Budget process that
have not yet been assigned to a specific department or programme.
In his
response, Prof Ncube cautioned legislators not to think that the money
earmarked for Unallocated Reserves was a lot, given that Treasury needed to
meet several obligations, including salary adjustments for civil servants.
“I would really
like to persuade our colleagues. We have a limited purse. I know (Mbizo MP) Hon
(Corban) Madzivanyika did mention that we seem to have a large Unallocated
Reserve. I can assure you it is not large at all. It will go so fast and so
quickly,” said Prof Ncube.
“One issue is
the budget for salary adjustments for civil servants in the first quarter. It
is going to happen and it is based on the job evaluation exercise. It is going
to eat away quite a lot of that Unallocated Reserve. It will not go far.”
Recently, the
Government turned the US$300 monthly Covid allowance to form part of a
permanent allowance for members of the Public Service.
During the
debate, Prof Ncube said Cabinet had directed that there be an audit for BEAM
funds to establish its usage amid reports of misuse.
“Turning to
BEAM arrears and so forth, colleagues, in Bulawayo, when we debated this issue,
I explained that the Government has taken a position through Cabinet that an
audit should be undertaken and because other concerns have come up, to say that
a good part of these beneficiaries from BEAM are not deserving cases.
“What we are
finding is that the system for identification of the vulnerable is being
manipulated by those with influence and leverage in various areas.
“This needs to
be audited so that we get to know who is really vulnerable. It looks like those
who are in need are not benefiting. That is the information we have. Therefore,
we do not want to rush in without doing this audit work.”
Legislators had
called for more money to be channelled to BEAM.
Prof Ncube said
the Government had in fact doubled BEAM allocation from ZiG2,24 billion in 2025
to ZiG5,8 billion in 2026.
“This also
needs to be better understood, but I think the main issue about BEAM is the
releases,” he said.
“We have ramped
up the Budget, Madam Chair, by 100 percent from what we had allocated last
year. We feel that this is a huge increase indeed and it is an issue of budget
releases, but conditional on the issues that I have raised that we need audits
to be done.”
He said there
was also need to reconcile the issue of free education and BEAM.
“The second
point is, if the beneficiaries of BEAM are in a Government school, to what
extent is this not just an issue of free education in the sense that the
teacher and the learning materials are provided, and the learner is exempted
from paying fees.
“Is this not
just a form of free education in Government schools? If it is the case, then
even some of the areas on BEAM that we think are arrears may not really be
arrears technically. It is mainly a free education type situation,” said Prof
Ncube.
Earlier on,
Prof Ncube increased Parliament’s Budget vote by ZiG800 million after
legislators said the legislature played a critical role requiring more
resources.
Legislators had
canvassed to have their Budget raised by ZiG1,5 billion from ZIG3,1 billion.
“I have
listened carefully to the contributions. Parliament does play a very critical
oversight role over the executive, there are many activities that the Hon,”
said Prof Ncube.
“Members have
to engage in activities, such as making sure that they can do adequate research
in their constituencies, so we need to support the constituency research
offices and officers.
“The cost of
travel around constituencies is also critical, and representation outside our
borders is critical, they ought to project and perform with dignity among their
peers. To that extent, Madam Chair, I propose that we increase Parliament’s
budget by another 800 million ZiG.” Herald
0 comments:
Post a Comment