Bright future for civil servants

Public servants may soon breathe a sigh of relief when the government announces the eagerly awaited salary increment. 

Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa told the National Assembly here yesterday that the Salaries and Remuneration Board that President John Magufuli formed has already submitted its comprehensive report to the Head of State and soon the government will reveal the details of the document.

The premier was responding to a question from Mbozi Member of Parliament Paschal Haonga (CHADEMA - pictured) who alleged that since the fifth phase government took power, public servants had been ignored on statutory salary increment as provided for by the Public Service Act.

The MP demanded the government’s statement as to when it will raise salaries of public servants as per the requirement of the law.

Responding, Mr Majaliwa rubbished the claims by the opposition MP that the government had ignored employees in public service. He instead said the president had made a series of meetings with representatives of the trade unions on how best to harmonise and improve the welfare of workers.

Premier Majaliwa said when the government assumed office in November 2015, there were many ghost workers on the pay roll, calling for intensive verification before salary increase.

“After that, we started working on verification of certificates to remove all public servants with fake or forged certificates on the pay roll,’’ he added.

Mr Majaliwa said after the two consecutive exercises, the government realised that there was also another critical issue where public servants of the same profession and education criteria were on different salary scales, a move that called for immediate measures to harmonise salaries.

In that regard, the president formed the Salaries and Remuneration Board to thoroughly review and assess the salaries in the public service as well as assess workers’ accountability and efficiency.

Mr Majaliwa (pictured) further explained that the government wanted to know if the money that was being released by the treasury as salaries to public servants was worthy the jobs they were doing.

“The board has already submitted its report to the president and anytime from now we shall release the details in that document,’’ insisted the premier.

He further said that the approach that was taken by the government was the best, expressing optimism that it will yield the best results.