Biti Says ZANU PF Youths, Security Forces Inflate Govt Wage Bill

ZANU PF’s quest to hold onto power has resulted in the recruitment of more and more security services personnel, inflating the government’s wage bill, a former cabinet minister has claimed.

In an interview with NewZimbabwe.com, former Finance Minister Tendai Biti said that the number of government employees has almost doubled since he left the Treasury in 2013. He said:

Information I have gathered reveals that, while I used to pay 236 000 workers during my tenure, currently Mnangagwa is paying 600 000 workers.

Most of these are employees in an inflated army, police, and the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) and Zanu PF ward officers in the villages.

The government has announced a raft of measures in recent months aimed at reducing expenditure on salaries.

These measures include the retirement of youth officers, freezing recruitment of staff in different Ministries as well as flushing out ghost workers through the biometric registration.

Related:

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• ‘Green Bombers’ Issue Sets Mthuli Ncube And ZANU PF On Collision Course

• Govt Starts Retrenching “Green Bombers”

More: NewZimbabwe.com