Africa-Press – Eswatini. Some civil servants are reportedly frustrated and cannot access financial loans from their savings from credit cooperative societies (SACCOs) as government remits the subscriptions late.
According to sources, civil servants seeking to access financial assistance from their SACCOs were experiencing difficulty. The sources claimed that the public service workers were informed by their respective cooperatives that their accounts were in arrears. The sources claimed that this was baffling, given the fact that the money was deducted from their salaries when they were remunerated each month. A high number of civil servants are paid from the 19th to the 30th of every calendar month.
The sources claimed that following the deductions by the employer, government did not remit the money to the various institutions it was deducting on their behalf. This, they said, frustrated them because they at instances had emergencies which required that they sought alternatives sources of funds; only to find that they were in arrears. “When we go to the SACCO, they tell us that the accounts are not up-to date and the loan one can access is lower. “This frustrates the plan you are seeking the money for,” a source said.
Another source claimed that the delay by government to remit their subscriptions and/or loan repayments had an impact on their annual planning for major personal investments. He said it meant that they had to wait extra months for their accounts to be updated when government remitted the money. He claimed that it would be understandable if only one SACCO was making these claims; but as things were, a number of them were facing the same challenge. It is worth noting that the United States Dollar (USD) gained strength at a time when the prime lending rate had increased from 10.25 to 10.75 per cent.
Expensive
This made borrowing from financial institutions even more expensive and it was in such instances that members of the public benefitted from seeking funds from their SACCOs (with non-prime linked interest rates). Recently, The Board Chairperson of the Swaziland National Association of Teachers (SNAT) SACCO, Gugu Mabuza, said because the cost-of-living adjustment (CoLA) paid to civil servants was below the inflation rate, it had exerted more pressure on the SACCO as members resolved to seek financial assistance from their organisation.
On the other hand, a member of the Secretariat of the Public Sector Unions (PSUs) of Swaziland, Mayibongwe Masangane, confirmed that their members had reported the frustration they endured when seeking to access loan facilities from their SACCOs. The PSUs are National Public Service and Allied Workers Union (NAPSAWU), Swaziland Democratic Nurses Union (SWADNU), SNAT and Swaziland National Association of Government Accounting Personnel (SNAGAP).
Fraction
The PSUs represent a fraction of civil servants, who are about 42 686, according to the Establishment Register for the financial year 2022/23.
Meanwhile, Masangane said this issue had been a subject of discussions at various instances with government. In fact, he said, it was brought up during the joint negotiation forum (JNF) on Monday. Masangane said this was because the cooperatives only approved loan applications of members who were in good standing with them in terms of paying subscriptions and servicing their existing debts.
He said: “This issue has been ongoing for a lengthy period and we don’t know what we should do to express our frustration and that of our members.”
The secretary general of SWADNU said the delay in remitting money deducted from civil servants was not only limited to the SACCOs but also to the unions. This publication, a year ago, reported that PSUs were up in arms with government as they were owed about E1.5 million in respect of their members’ subscription fees. However, this amount excluded other deductions, like pension and subscriptions for savings and credit cooperatives.
Average
At the time, it was said on average, government was supposed to remit about E1.484 million as almost E1 million had to be remitted to SNAT, E230 000 to NAPSAWU, E230 000 to SWADNU, while E24 000 would be for SNAGAP. The PSUs secretariat said usually, government remitted the subscriptions to the unions on or about the 22nd of very calendar month. They said the employer then delayed and it started remitting around the 16th of the following month, which was about three weeks later. In fact, the leaders of the public sector unions said government started delaying to remit the deducted monies in 2016, but it was with days, but off late, it became worse. They said this frustrated their operations and in terms of servicing stop orders, they found themselves paying more in terms of penalties, yet it was the employer who was at fault.
Source: TIMES
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