Sunday, May 15, 2011

Almost half of Zimbabwe's civil servants are either not qualified or are not working, according to a World Bank report

It is estimated that $15m of state money is being lost each month paying such workers. Auditors found that one ministry appointed nearly 7,000 people on one day ahead of the 2008 election run-off. Either the civil service is incapable or state funds are used for political ends. The audit was carried out by Ernst and Young India in 2010 and covered the period 2007-9. This was a period when Zimbabwe's economy was in meltdown - because of run-away inflation, the monthly salary of a teacher hardly paid for a single bus fare. This might partly explain why on the day of the audit, some 13,000 public workers were absent - from a total of 180,000. It found that 75,000 state workers did not have the qualifications needed to do the job. Since the power-sharing government was set up in 2009, an extra 40,000 civil servants have been employed.

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