President relaxes ban on civil service employment

PRESIDENT John Magufuli eased the ban on public employment yesterday but warned that a review of civil servants will be conducted to uncover ghost workers.

The government had temporarily suspended new jobs in the civil service sector pending a clear review of phantom workers, an exercise that uncovered over 18,000. Speaking at a meeting with editors and journalists at the State House, the president said the exercise which was meant for two months from July, this year, is now complete. “We want to get rid of the few people who are not legitimate employees,” he said.

“The exercise has been fruitful and has enabled the government to foot the bills and arrears of legitimate employees.” “You can be surprised why the amount of money spent on salaries is still high. The same amount would have escalated to 1trn/- from 560bn/- if the same people were still in the payroll system.”

According to him the amount retrieved had helped in clearing various arrears including those involving teachers. At least 63,500 teachers’ pending arrears have been cleared.

There are more than 39,000 teachers left and the government is auditing the debt before making the payment, he said. Giving more detail on the education sector, the president who marks one year in office today, said that despite progress to improve the quality of education and offering free education from primary to Form Four secondary education, the exercise has been facing a number of challenges. 

He said just after the government announced a free education, enrolment in both primary and secondary education rose by 84 and 26 per cent respectively. However, he said while teachers in primary school had to forge numbers of pupils registered, the government also uncovered there were ghost students in universities.

“The government lost 3.5bn/- as a result of ghost students benefiting from the higher education students loans board. It is very bad and serious,” he added. As the nation focus to industrial development, the president warned that there is likely severe fiscal policy than before to allow only legitimate business in the country.

He said people who used to get money through back doors or black business should look for alternative work. He told members of the press that in cutting government expenditure and increasing tax collection few people will be affected but all is for the national interest. He said he had to go on only three foreign trips out of the 47 invitations he received during his one year tenure in office.

“We’re moving in the right direction. I have sacrificed my life and my government is committed to working for the country,” he noted. President Magufuli identified that he had to strategically increase budget funding in some key areas including development projects.

The funding rose to 40 per cent from 26 per cent targeting to improve the national economy. The emphasis is now on improving contribution of industrial sector to the gross domestic product from 7.3 per cent to 15 per cent.

The president said the government has been negotiating with China, India and other African countries to improve economic and trade ties. According to Dr Magufuli, China has agreed to start about 1,000 small scale industries in Bagamoyo as India offered a 7 billion US dollar seed capital for agriculture projects. 

Source:DailyNews