Govt salary plan progressive

EDITOR — The initiative being made by Government to allow civil servants a once-off $300 withdrawal of their salaries is greatly appreciated and progressive.

The truth is that civil servants were losing productive time in bank queues devoting time they were supposed to be serving the country to cash seeking efforts.

Rural teachers were in a worse off situation as distances from their workstations to banks are too long.

It also has shielded them from seemingly small but unforgiving bank charges which they were subjected to.

Same applies to buying things they did not want aiming to get cashback in shops.

Money was being lost in unnecessary transactions. Money that was supposed to be directed to better use in this difficult economy.

The cash plan shows that our Government is people centred. The Government is the biggest employer in the country and etching convenience at that level is a sign of a considerate leadership.

We appreciate how the move will enhance effective service delivery and productivity through minimising the precious working hours lost at the bank.

This welcome development together with the measures such as the use of plastic money will certainly reduce long queues at banks.

Predatory cash barons who were benefiting from underhand cash transactions with desperate civil servants will no longer have an unwarranted advantage over the public workforce.

In the same vein, it would be prudent if the Government looked into interest rates being charged to civil servants by microfinance institutions.

They are being unfair and the deductions are way higher than the RBZ prescribed charges.

If this issue is scrutinised, I am sure it will reveal the number of civil servants who unknowingly signed themselves into choking arrangements. Can’t the Public Service Commission come up with a money lending institution which assists civil servants but offering fair rates?

This would take all the fraudulent institutions off the market, as well as saving civil servants.

The lending system could provide extra income to the Government. As long as civil servants refuse to be used as fodder by fraudulent characters, this plan will bear fruits. Joseph Nemangwe, Norton.