Times Of Swaziland: GOVT’S EMPTY PROMISES TO IMF EXPOSED

GOVT’S EMPTY PROMISES TO IMF EXPOSED
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BY SISHO MAGAGULA on 22/09/2016 01:13:00


MBABANE – Government’s empty promises to the International Monetary Fund
(IMF) in relation to the recently implemented salary review for civil servants
have been exposed.
It has since surfaced that government made an undertaking to the IMF that, due
to the country’s precarious fiscal position, it would postpone the
implementation of the salary review exercise for civil servants, but only effect
a cost of living adjustment.
However, government went against this undertaking made to the IMF and
implemented the salary review after signing a collective agreement with public
sector associations.
Soon after the release of Establishment Circular No: 1 of 2016 in July, which
effected the salary review, the Prime Minister publicly admitted that the IMF
would not be pleased with the implementation of the review.
This was during his breakfast meeting with editors who had asked him what the
E850 million plus used to finance the salary review exercise would mean to the
wage bill of the civil service and how international partners would view it.
In vernacular, Dlamini responded and said: “Sitocabana ne IMF.”
Dlamini told the editors that the IMF would not be pleased with the salary
review because it had wanted government to reduce the size of the civil service
and, therefore, reduce the wage bill but instead, government had done the direct
opposite by increasing it.  It turns out the PM was very right.
Responding to questions from this newspaper, the spokesperson of the IMF said in
the December 2015 economic assessment of Swaziland, the IMF welcomed the
country’s intentions to purse fiscal consolidation starting the fiscal year
2016/17.