The government has buckled under pressure and plans to retrench civil servants to cut its wage bill as it struggles to pay its 107 000 employees. The plan is to transform the public service and offer effective services at all levels of government.
The government wage bill typically accounts for a large share of total public spending, and thus, often constitutes a key component of fiscal consolidation strategies in response to economic crises. Generally, reforms aimed at reducing the wage bill encompass different types of measures such as focused on compensation, employment, and institutional framework to help deliver deep and sustainable wage bill adjustments.
The reform strategy is country-specific. However, retrenchment by its very nature is an indication of relative weakness and declining power, and thus retrenchment can have a deteriorating effect on the mental health of people. This situation will likely drag on for a long time.he only factor that could affect a significant change is if the government runs out of money. When civil servants are not paid, there is often a big social impact.
There are strikes, a refusal to work, and detrimental effects on social services. The people, who are supposed to receive those services, suffer the most. The country is often plunged into pain. There are things in the civil service that do need to change. It is legitimate to question whether the civil service’s structure provides the right amount of accountability for senior officials. The government has to abolish unnecessary spending instead of retrenching civil servants. I’m not sure how efficient that would be.
Therefore, in an environment of high unemployment, persistent poverty, weak economic growth, and shrinking fiscal resources Namibia cannot afford to economise civil servants. To revive our economy, which is critical, we need to do away with deputy ministers and governors, and eliminate zombie state-owned enterprises (SOE) as well as cut ministers. Scrap deputy ministers as this is duplication and they are not needed for the civil service to function. Why do we need deputy ministers? Do we even know who they are? They enjoy all the VIP perks and sizeable salaries that come with the job. They are here to serve us, even if we did not know it. The shocking truth is that the president is not constitutionally obliged to appoint even one deputy minister. There is a duplication of functions among ministers, their deputies, and executive directors, which does not augur well for the proper functioning of government.
The monies being spent on these deputies, if put together, could build more health centres and educational institutions in many deprived communities in the country than one can imagine. Similarly, the resources being paid to our deputy ministers could fund many development programs that could absorb hundreds if not thousands of our deprived youths in gainful employment, thereby easing tension around the employment situation in the country.
Furthermore, why do we need governors, councils, and mayors? Scrap governors, and keep councils and mayors. They must perform or give jobs to those who are ready. This is total duplication, which easily can cost the jobs of poor earned civil servants. Cut down on the number of ministers.
Therefore, there is no need to appoint many ministers, when only a few acceptable cabinet ministers are needed to decide on government policies. All ministers to be relevant and to be able to assist in the evolution and determination of policies in their sectors, must be cabinet ministers. The excess numbers must be cut off and that will significantly reduce public expenditure. Namibia needs a lean cabinet made up of the right people who should ideally be technocrats. For example, there is no longer any justification for the finance minister to be given to an engineer with no history in the world of economics. Among other things, State enterprises and parastatals have to be commercialised or reformed without further delay and more importantly, real investment has to be attracted as opposed to foreign direct investment (FDI). Moreover, I regard this as an additional burden on the meagre finances of the State, given the number of commitments the government has pledged to accomplish in the areas of roads, infrastructure, energy, health, and other strategic development projects. Indeed, the government is being too uneconomical amid mass deprivation and I believe there is a need to scrap deputy ministries, and governors, loss-making SOE, and cut cabinet ministers to avoid retrenchment for civil servants.
Even without introducing the need for harmonising salaries, which is being misunderstood, there is a need to increase salaries for most civil servants. Notwithstanding reserve capacity, a strike in public services is among those perceived as being the most disruptive of people’s daily lives. The cost of the strike will be higher the greater the weight of the particular services in the economic life of the country.