Study faults govt recruitment freeze
Findings of an Action Aid study has recommneded a review of public service workers’ recruitment and promotions freeze as advised by international bilateral and multilateral institutions if Malawi’s public service delivery is to improve.
The study findings show that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank warnings on public sector wage bill increase led to government imposing a recruitment and promotions freeze.
The report titled ‘The Public versus Austerity: Why Public Sector Wage Bill (PSWB) Constraints Must End: Insights from Malawi’s Education and Health Sectors’ exposes how austerity cuts in many countries, including Malawi, have blocked the recruitment of nurses, teachers and other essential public sector workers.
The analysis is an ActionAid new ground-breaking research report and was released last week in Lilongwe. It was carried out in partnership with Public Services International and Education International.
The report, which focused on a 10-year period from 2010/11 to 2020/21 fiscal years, found that over the past 40 years, austerity policies have led to cuts in the public sector workforce that have undermined government’s ability to deliver quality public services.
Reads the report, in part: “There are two direct consequences of these policies: Blocks to the recruitment of new teachers, nurses and other essential workers, even where there are severe shortages.
“Strict limits to the already low pay of existing health, education and other public sector workers undermine decent work rights of public sector rights, including recruitment and retention of qualified staff.”
The report calls for increased oversight role of different actors, including Parliament, to push for either the abandoning of PSWB restraints or modifying the specific conditionality of international financial institutions’ regressive programmes associated with PSWB.
Commenting on the findings in an interview, ActionAid Malawi acting country director Rodney Mwaisimba said it is with no doubt and without fear to stress that the need to overhaul the framework for economic management in Malawi is urgent.
He said: “Neoliberal economic reforms in Malawi have taken many shapes and guises and have worked to undermine the capacities of the State and people to effectively pursue developmental outcomes.
“In short, they have sought to reduce the role of the State in the social and economic lives of the Malawian society.”
Mwaisimba said PSWB restraints are part of a wider package of austerity and reductions in government spending that have had negative impacts, especially in agriculture, education and health.
The consequences of PSWB as shown in the report, indicate that, for example, public service healthcare workers charge assitional payments for services that should be provided for free.
A review of IMF documents on Malawi, including documentation for the Extended Credit Facility (ECF) programmes, show that PSWB restraints have been sufficiently implied even though the documents show that spending on critical sectors such as education and health would be protected, thereby, leaving an apparent discretion for the country’s authorities to decide.
The issue of PSWB restraints is a lending policy and programme issue of the IMF for their ECF and affects many countries.
