Govt fails dismally to reduce wage bill

Govt adopts zero growth of public service Job losses, a possibility as government undertakes a study

President Mokgweetsi Masisi’s government has failed to reduce the public service wage bill in the past three years following an undertaking that such will be done.

The wage bill which is expected to be below 10 percent of the Gross Domestic Product ( GDP) has increased from 13 percent to 16 percent.

The Directorate of Public Service Management ( DPSM) Acting Director Dr. Omponye Kereteletswe said that as an upper- middle economy, Botswana needs to manage its wage bill closely.

He said the aim is to have the wage bill seriously reduced and the expectation is that by then the private sector would have grown to create more jobs. He revealed that there is wastage in the public service.

He said the government through the DPSM is undertaking a study with the help of the European Union dubbed Workforce Planning, which is expected to be concluded by the end of the current financial year.

“We have dropped the ball in some cases and it would not look good for the economy. Our preliminary results from the study show that there are certain things that need to be changed.

“In doing so we need to do a holistic approach to have an informed decision. This has to happen not abruptly but at least in two to three years because doing it abruptly will hurt the economy. From my figures, I do not think the government was able to reduce the wage bill by five percent for three years as was the plan. “You need to carry out workforce planning and redundancy assessment because if not done, you will hurt the system,” Dr. Kereteletswe said when responding to questions on the government wage bill by the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee led by its Chairman Dithapelo Keorapetse. He explained that comparable countries are at 11 percent but the desire is to be at 10 percent relative to the GDP. He said currently the establishment ( public service) which stands at 126 000 has a 5.8 percent vacancy rate. According to Dr. Kereteletswe, the government wants to maintain zero growth and will not create any new positions. He said the Study on Workforce Planning will assist them.

“The aim of the study is not completely to reduce the public service but to redistribute according to need. It will be more appropriate to make a decision once the study has been concluded.

“We want to have a give and take with the private sector and right sizing for the government. The expectation is to see the private sector grow.

“At this stage after we were assisted partly by the EU, we are at a stage of procuring a consultant to conclude the study”, the Acting Director said. In her budget speech this year Minister of Finance, Peggy Serame stated that reducing and effectively managing the Government wage bill will be implemented through the Workforce Planning System which is being developed by the DPSM, through the Botswana Public Service Workforce Strategy and Workforce Plans Project that started in July 2021. She said the key objectives of this project are to manage the Government wage bill, promote workforce flexibility and improve productivity in the public sector. This, she said, will help to identify where public sector employment can be restructured, and hence identify possible savings in the wage and salary bill.

“This will directly address the problem of the ever- growing wage bill, which was estimated at over 16 percent of GDP in 2020/ 2021, compared to the acceptable 10 percent recorded by comparator nations. “The benefits of this initiative will start to be realised in the coming financial year. However, since the DPSM is taking a long- term approach to this initiative, and given the transitions required, the project is envisaged to run over a period of three years for effective implementation,” Serame said.