CLEARANCE of debts and arrears for civil servants is scheduled to start soon after the certification of all genuine employees in the public payroll system.
The government says the number of
phantom workers who had been costing the government billions of money
monthly in terms of salaries and other remunerations reached 16,500 as
of October 20.
Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa said in
Dar es Salaam yesterday that upon completion of the verification work,
the government will announce the new salary structure, noting that the
state through the Board of Salaries was reviewing salaries in the public
sector for improvement.
The premier was speaking at the
commemoration of the University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM)’s 55th
anniversary, an event at which also the book, ‘From Lumumba Street to
the Hill and Beyond,’ was launched, focusing on the history of UDSM.
Mr Majaliwa, who graced the event, said
the government had started paying higher learning students’ loans to the
new entrants, saying 90 per cent of the loans will be paid to the
beneficiaries by tomorrow.
“The government has increased the budget
for higher learning students’ loans from 340bn/- in 2015/2016 fiscal
year to 483bn/- this financial year,” observed the premier.
He said the government will squarely
work on all challenges facing public universities to ensure that the
higher learning institutions offer quality education, citing limited
infrastructure like students’ hostels, laboratories and staff offices as
the critical hurdles that the state wants to confront head-on.
UDSM Vice- Chancellor, Prof Rwekaza
Mukandala, said the country’s oldest university faces acute shortage of
human resources due to a ten-year ban on staff recruitment, which came
as part of the implementation of the World Bank imposed Structural
Adjustment Programme.
“The sharp increase of student enrolment has exacerbated the shortage of academic, technical and administrative staff,” he said.
The don said different departments were
compelled to shelve important teaching programmes due to shortage of
human resources following the government directive to limit post
retirement engagements to 65 years for senior lecturers and 70 for
academic staff.
“This is a serious challenge that calls
for immediate attention of all concerned parties to redress,” said
professor Mukandala, expressing gratitude over the state for its
remittance considerable amount of funds for infrastructural development
at public universities.
“The funding has enabled UDSM to undertake major rehabilitation of its old and badly degraded infrastructure,” he said.
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