Times Of Swaziland: WAGE BILL SUCKING US DRY

WAGE BILL SUCKING US DRY
================================================================================
Editor on 23/04/2024 08:15:00


Sir,
The wage bill is a topical issue of government expenditure because of two simple
reasons. The first is that government cannot afford it anymore because the
public revenue base has been eroding, which means government has less money than
it used to have before. Secondly, the wages are crowding out other types of
government expenditure that could be dedicated to quality service delivery,
especially in areas of health, education and infrastructure.
Adjust
If government can adjust the wage bill into a more affordable and sustainable
level, then more money would be free to tar gravel roads, pay elderly grants and
provide adequate medication in hospitals, among many other critical service
delivery needs. So what is most likely happening is that government operates
month to month on a frenzy of collecting the little bit of money that is
available to meet the huge salary obligations at the expense of other critical
services. To address the issue of the ballooning wage bill, government has two
options: One is to adjust the wage bill so that it decreases permanently over
time. The other option is to be deliberate and cut down the wage bill by leaning
out a lot of government positions to achieve fiscal sustainability. In fact,
leaning out the positions is probably the most important aspect of building a
more sustainable civil service wage bill.
Goals
Government has to be more effective and efficient in implementing the different
development goals within a set and sustainable structure. The reality is that
the real increase in the cost of the civil service is due to expansion of
government positions, the employee head counts. The point is not to put people
out of jobs, especially given the fact that most of the civil servants, like
many employees in urban areas of Eswatini, provide financial support to rural
communities who would otherwise have nothing to sustain their daily needs. Part
of the civil service wage bill also contributes to the aggregate demand for
goods and services in the economy, and thus prevents the economy from total
collapse. So it is clear that we need people working for government, and these
employees are also an integral part of the economy, because they too spend their
salaries in the economy and thus keep the economy going.
However, the civil service wage bill cannot keep growing forever. More
government money needs to be focused on delivering key services that will
benefit the nation as a whole.
It makes sense to get loans for some of our capital projects, but it is
irresponsible to borrow money just to pay people to occupy offices. Let’s make
our money pay for the things that matter, and not to fill pockets that will suck
us dry.