Wages bill increased by K1.758bil, minister says

PUBLIC Service Minister Elias Kapavore says the wages bill for the public service had increased by K1.758 billion in the past five years.
“The pay bill increased from K2.68 billion in 2012 and at this stage is accurately projected to be K4.438 billion in 2017,” he said.
“This is an increase of K1.758 billion over the past five years – an increase of 65.6 per cent, or an average increase of 11 per cent (compounded) per annum.
“The annual public sector pay rise has averaged 7.5 per cent per annum for the four years (2013 to 2016) and will be 3 per cent for 2017 (reduced due to reduced Government revenue over the period), together with the in-built annual increments within the pay scales averaging about 1.5 per cent per annum.
“Compounded together, these pay increases amount to 47. 4 per cent of the 65.6 per cent total over the five years.
“Smaller increases resulted from public sector reforms to enhance efficiency.
“The balance is due to the Government planned increases in staff on strength.
“Over the five-year period, staff on strength has increased from 92,260 in 2012, projected to be 115,958 in 2017, an increase of 23,698 – that is 21 per cent or an average of 4 per annum.
“The major staff increases have been in the hospitals and Provincial Health Authorities (2,368), teachers (5,930).
“This is in accordance with the Government’s priority national strategies in the health, education, and law and justice sectors.”
Kapavore was correcting an earlier statement he released which said the wage increase was from K1.4billion in 2012 to K4.5billion in 2017.
“That is the projected increase of K3.1billion or 220 per cent over five years.
“This figures provided by the Treasury are clearly much too high,” he said yesterday.