Harare City Council salary shocker

HARARE City Council senior staff are getting paid hefty salaries of thousands of dollars monthly  while juniors and other civil servants get peanuts and services have deteriorated, it has emerged.

The news comes as finance minister Tendai Biti has announced a salary freeze for all civil servants.

The huge salaries and allowances are being paid out while service delivery has generally stagnated and residents are saddled with city bills that many say they cannot afford.

The bigger chunk of rates collections, insiders say, are going to maintaining city officials’ lavish lifestyles.

The news comes a week after city chief accountant Mr Tendai Kwenda threatened to attach 33 vehicles to recover US$650 000 owed to him in unpaid salaries and benefits, and another ex-employee is claiming close to US$400 000 from the council.

The Labour Court recently awarded dismissed IT manager Mr Andrew Ndoorwi US$391 380,03 for unprocedural termination of contract.

Mr Ndoorwi was on grade four when he was suspended and eventually dismissed.
As of February 2009, his colleagues on the same grade were paid US$2 332 per month.

They also received a professional allowance of US$466,40; a representative allowance of US$781,22; an entertainment allowance of US$233,20; and a non-practice allowance of US$423.

On top of that, they are entitled to 40 litres of fuel per week.

About 59 employees are on grade four.

The gross, including benefits but excluding fuel, comes to US$4 935,42 monthly.

This means at that time council was spending at least US$291 189,78 on grade four employees alone every month.

Mr Ndoorwi’s US$391 380,03 award is attracting an interest of 5 percent per annum until fully paid.

Since Mr Ndoorwi’s dismissal, council has awarded pay rises.

The city’s senior management payroll has remained a closely guarded secret.

“We are sometimes not given payslips and the amount deposited in our accounts varies every month,” alleged one senior manager.

Harare has 14 heads of departments and two deputy directors. Only town clerk Dr Tendai Mahachi is on grade one.

Last month, Dr Mahachi told the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Local Government that he earned US$4 900 per month and 30 percent of this in benefits.

He presented a salary schedule that said council’s wage bill was about 32 percent of revenue and he wanted to reduce this to about 25 percent.

However, this would mean that Dr Mahachi, who is on grade one, is earning almost the same as all his subordinates put together.

Sources last week revealed that officially about US$210 000 was deposited as senior managers’ salaries monthly but other perks are paid in cash and these are allegedly not recorded on the pay sheet.
Each head of department is entitled to a clothing allowance of six suits, six shirts and two pairs of shoes each year while their basic salaries are reportedly around US$10 000.

They also receive performance allowances, which range between 10 and 25 percent of monthly salaries.

The net pay bill for the rest of council is normally US$3,9 million monthly and will soon rise to be US$4,4 million after an arbitral award backdated salary increments.

The city’s gross monthly salary bill is nearly US$6,4 million for the 7 000 employees.

The majority of Zimbabwe’s formal employees earn about US$250 salaries and struggle to pay water bills and rates.

Government has frozen civil servants’ salaries until further notice.

“Council rakes in close to US$7 million from ratepayers every month implying that funds received only cater for salaries.

“This is in direct breach of a Government directive requiring local authorities to allocate a maximum of 30 percent of revenue to salaries and employee benefits and the remainder to service delivery,” said an official in the human resources department.

The huge salaries return to haunt the city administration and ratepayers when senior staff are unprocedurally dismissed and the courts award hefty compensation packages.

Mr Ndoorwi and Mr Kwenda, are claiming over US$1 million from council; money which residents no doubt would feel is better spent on service delivery.

Mr Ndoorwi says his claim is less than what other senior officials either dismissed or forced to resign were paid.

Lawyer Joel Mambara, representing Mr Ndoorwi, said his client also deserved a Mazda BT50 truck, and residential and commercial stands in line with what others in his grade were getting.

He also wants his fuel allocation for 76 weeks, translating to 3 040 litres or close to US$4 000.

Last year chamber secretary Mrs Josephine Ncube wrote to Mr Mambara notifying him that council had agreed to pay Mr Ndoorwi in lieu of reinstatement.

“I have instructed the human resources director to compute Mr Ndoorwi’s dues,” she wrote.

Mr Ndoorwi was dismissed on allegations of buying five laptops without approval.

The Labour Court ruled that Mr Ndoorwi’s dismissal was unfair because there was no evidence to prove that he purchased the laptops without authority as the commission running the city’s affairs at the time approved the purchases.

Mr Kwenda, who was facing similar charges, also won his case.

Arbitrator Mr L. M. Gabilo ruled that in the interest of justice the decision taken on Mr Kwenda should apply to Mr Ndoorwi.

“I make the following orders that the claimant be reinstated to his position and provide back pay of salary and benefits for the whole period of dismissal and that if reinstatement is no longer possible due to irreconcilable relationships, parties negotiate damages in lieu of reinstatement,” he ruled.