President Magufuli to cut his salary?

By The guardian reporter

                                                             President John Magufuli

 The government plans to cut the salaries of the highest paid public sector workers, President John Magufuli said yesterday, revealing that no less than 1,680 "ghost workers" were uncovered on the state payroll in just the first two days of a national audit.

 

"Government employees who are paid the highest salaries of up to 40 million/- (per month) will face a pay cut and a maximum salary cap of 15 million/- will be enforced," State House quoted Magufuli as saying in a statement late yesterday.

 

This effectively means that the president’s own salary is likely to be cut since the position comes with a hefty pay package. Although official figures are hard to come by, one member of parliament has publicly claimed that the Tanzanian president is paid a salary of over 30 million/- per month, which would be slashed by over 50 percent if the plan goes ahead.

 

The country’s highest-paid civil servants include chief executive officers of some key parastatals, government institutions and state-run agencies. Although their precise pay packages are rarely made public, Magufuli revealed yesterday that some top public officials are paid salaries of up to 40 million/-.

 

He told a public rally in his home village in Chato district, Geita region that the 1,680 ghost workers being paid total salaries of 1.8 billion/- per month had been identified in the first two days of the nationwide civil service audit.

 

The president offered the example of one Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA) employee who has been pocketing the salaries of 17 "ghost workers" as part of the government payroll fraud.

 

The TRA employee has since been arrested and is expected to be charged in court soon, according to the State House statement.

 

Magufuli also said his government will reduce the tax burden on salaried workers by lowering the pay-as-you-earn (PAYE) levy from the current 11 per cent to between 9 and 10 per cent.

 

Analysts say the public sector wage bill has escalated sharply over the past few years partly because of the number of people registering fake names to collect extra wages.

 

A 2015 audit found the government had paid 141.4bn/- to fake workers over that year. 

 

The government spent 573.7bn/- in February this year to pay the salaries of 556,418 civil servants - equivalent to more than half of government revenue collected over the same period