5 key issues Zimbabwe Finance Minister Chinamasa should address tomorrow

2-Rationalising the civil service

The Zimbabwe government spends 83 cents of every dollar it collects on salaries for its workers, estimated at 500 000 with recurrent expenditure in 2016 seen at 92.1 percent of budget.

Under the 15-month staff monitored programme (SMP) — an informal agreement between a government and IMF staff to monitor the implementation of its economic reforms — Chinamasa pledged to sharply cut its public sector wage bill to 52 percent of expenditure by 2019 to improve fiscal discipline and promised wider reforms aimed at streamlining expenditure and boosting investment in productive sectors.

But with many of Zimbabwe’s traditional industries closing and the remaining companies struggling, patience is wearing thin among the restive population. Independent analysts put Zimbabwe’s jobless rate northwards of 90 percent, which, coupled with an economic meltdown and cash shortages, have led to a series of protests and the biggest show of public dissent against Mugabe’s rule in a decade.

The government is facing its biggest financial squeeze since it dumped its hyperinflation-hit currency in 2009 and adopted the US dollar, and has, for the past three months, failed to pay its workers on time.

Culling the bloated civil service is a political gamble, but one Chinamasa needs to take.

The Public Service Commission – a government department responsible for hiring state workers, has already said that it would abolish 8 252 posts out of 19 235 jobs in the agriculture ministry.

In the 2016 budget, Chinamasa also proposed to reduce ward staffing levels for the youth and women’s ministries.

It’s a start, but these are low hanging fruits. How about cutting down the size of the bloated executive and ministries?

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