AfricaPress-Tanzania: THE government has paid over 400bn/- to civil servants in salary and non-salary arrears and pledged to continue clearing the debt as it accomplishes the verification of their claims.
Addressing members of the Tanzania Teachers Union (TTU) in Dodoma yesterday, President John Magufuli said that 115.3bn/- represented salary arrears and 358.1 bn/- was cumulative outstanding allowances.
He said that of 115.3 bn/- which was allocated for salary arrears, 38.3bn/- was paid to 35,805 teachers.
Dr Magufuli explained that before effecting the payments, the government would first verify the claims in order to ascertain their validity.
He said the government was currently working on an electronic system which would be used for collecting and verifying outstanding salaries and allowances of all civil servants across the country.
“This system will start to be used in Dodoma this month on a pilot basis and if it proves successful, it will be implemented across the country,” Dr Magufuli said.
He said however that the government valued the work being done by teachers, and that’s why it continued paying them salaries even after closing schools due to the coronavirus outbreak.
The Head of State said that out of all civil servants on the government’s payroll, 266,905 are teachers who are paid 50 per cent of the budget allocated for salaries on a monthly basis.
“The government disburses 600bn/- every month for salaries of its workers but almost half of the amount is paid to teachers,” he said.
He assured teachers that the government would continue paying them even if the schools will continue to be closed for a year or ten years.
Dr Magufuli further said that the government was aware of the challenges facing teachers, and that’s why it had been taking measures to address them. He said the government has promoted 306,917 civil servants after a thorough verification, 160,367 of whom are teachers.
“The government is also intending to promote 290,625 civil servants in this financial year, including 166,548 teachers,” he said.
Dr Magufuli, however, said that the government had also paid almost 85 per cent of the debt it owes retired teachers after merging social security funds.
He said that according to Public Service Social Security Fund (PSSSF) a sum of 1.2trn/- has been paid to 15,229 retired teachers between August 2018 and June this year.
Dr Magufuli said that the government also intends to clear payments amounting to 215bn/- for the remaining 2,631 retired teachers before August this year.
For her part, Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office (Policy Coordination, Parliamentary Affairs, Labour, Employment, Youth and the Disabled), Ms Jenista Mhagama, said that after merging the social security funds, a total of 17,660 teachers were shifted to PSSSF.
She said the government had already cleared their payments by almost 85 per cent, noting that it was currently working to clear the remaining amount.
Ms Mhagama, however, called upon employers to allow formation of workers unions in work places because they had proved to be useful in resolving disputes involving the two parties.
