Government blames ministries for salary delays
Ministry of Finance has accused the three main ministries of Health, Education and Agriculture of causing delay in payment of salaries for civil servants due to late submission of payment vouchers to the Accountant General’s office.
An analysis of the causes of the delay for April salaries made available to The Nation indicates that payment vouchers for civil servants in the Ministry of Health, who include health workers, were not submitted by April 22 as required.
“All the 170-plus cost centres submitted their vouchers after 22nd [April],” reads the analysis.
On the ministries of Agriculture and Education, the analysis indicates that 62 percent of the cost centres submitted their payment vouchers after April 22 which resulted in payments being made to banks on April 29 as communicated to Civil Service Trade Union (CSTU).
Ministry of Finance has time and again attributed the delay in salaries for the past five months to changes in the government financial system which made it imperative for ministries to submit GP5A forms before releasing funds.
The GP5A form has become an important document since details emerged of looting of government resources and it is a summary of personal emoluments of all positions in a ministry or department which have to be filled every month and verified by the Department of Human Resource Management.
Salary delays for civil servants started in November 2013 soon after the resumption of the Integrated Financial Management Information System which was shutdown to trace how billions of taxpayers were looted and records deleted.
But CSTU has accused the Finance Ministry of complacency after the office of the Accountant General admitted that money was only sent to banks on April 29, seven days after they were expected to do so.
“Our appeal is that government should follow the cash flow budget as approved by Parliament. Because of funding cuts and inadequate other recurrent transactions budget for the past months, some ministries are unable to buy the GP5A papers,” CSTU secretary general Madalitso Njolomole told The Nation recently.
