NO NEED FOR WAGE CUTS, SAYS IMF

There is no need to retrench civil servants or cut their wages to save the Swaziland economy, a top IMF official said.

Joannes Mongardini, the Head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Mission to Swaziland, said there were other ways to reduce the bill in Swaziland without cutting the wages of ordinary workers.

This contradicts the Swaziland Government that has demanded cuts in salaries of 10 percent across-the-board for public service workers.

Mongardini told the BBC World Service Focus on Africa programme yesterday (16 November 2011), ‘We are recommending for the government to reduce the wages bill by 5 percent. This is a relatively moderate amount compared to countries like Greece, Portugal and Ireland.’

Asked by the BBC about the position of public service workers who have complained about the possibility of retrenchments and wage cuts, Mongardini said, ‘We fully understand that this is a politically difficult decision to make.

‘Having said that, the government can find other ways to reduce the wage bill that will not require salary cuts. In particular, some of the largest increases in the wage bill in recent years are due to increased security forces and police personnel and they also are due to very generous allowances that the government has given to politicians and top civil servants.’