TSU | Mozambique: PM denies financial problems in salary arrears

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TSU | Mozambique: PM denies financial problems in salary arrears

5:28 CAT | 24 Jul 2023

Photo: Conselho Executivo Provincial da Zambézia

The Prime Minister of Mozambique, Adriano Maleane, acknowledged on Saturday that around 3,000 state workers are still facing arrears in the payment of their salaries, but guaranteed that the problem is of a technical nature and not the result of any lack of money.

“The government is working to avoid delays, because this is not an acceptable situation. This has to be made clear: there can only be delays for technical reasons. In this case, the government guarantees that the problem is not a lack of money,” Adriano Maleane told a press conference in Quelimane at the end of a visit to Zambézia province.

The government has already admitted that a problem with the computer system and the insertion of state employees within the scope of the implementation of the Single Salary Table (TSU) is causing delays in the payment of salaries to the civil service.

READ: TSU: Salary delays due to flaws inputting data in the computer programme

At issue are delays in payments, especially for teachers, who have not yet received their salaries for the month of June.

“As the problem is not a lack of money, the only explanation is the implementation of the payroll management mechanism in the sector, which is causing some delays. Until last week we had 3,000 that were still experiencing delays,” Maleiane added.

Lusa reported on July 19 that, according to official data, spending on salaries for the Mozambican civil service is expected to grow by 9.1% in 2023, to 181,800 million meticais (€2,539 million), in a year marked by the application of the TSU.

According to data from the Government of Mozambique and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) contained in an IMF report this month, examined by Lusa and based on a review of previous estimates, expenditure on wages, including social security, thus represents more than half of the 320,400 million meticais (€4,476 million) of estimated state spending for 2023.

The same report points out that in 2022, also after revision by the IMF, 166,600 million meticais (€2,327 million) of the 298,400 million meticais (€4,168 million) of current state costs were allocated to the payment of civil service salaries and social security.

For 2024, and despite the ongoing changes, the report estimates, also after a downward revision, an increase in current expenditure by the Mozambican state to 363,900 million meticais (€5,083 million), of which 203,700 million meticais (€2,845 million) comprised wages and social security.

In 2019, Mozambique’s total expenditure on the civil service was 117,300 million meticais (€1,638 million).

READ: MDM demands dismissal of the ‘Father of the TSU’ – Carta

On July 14 of this year, the IMF advised that the Mozambican government should “reduce the wage bill” to the levels seen in comparable countries in the region, in order to be able to invest in priority areas like combating food insecurity and poverty.

The Mozambican state expects to reduce the civil service wage bill by 500 million meticais (€7.2 million) after corrections are made following ongoing audits.

“About 500 million meticais: this will be the reduction resulting from the impact of the audits, due to the corrections that will be made,” General Inspector of Finance, Emanuel Mabumo, said in June at a press conference in Maputo.

The audits were to be concluded by the end of July, he said at the time, and are part of government measures announced at the beginning of the year to contain the growth of the wage bill via the implementation of the TSU.

Audits cover 374,000 state employees from all areas.

At the time of the above mentioned press conference, the inspector general of Finance said that almost half of the cases had already been analysed and non-compliance had been detected in 20%ç

Emanuel Mabumo predicted that “this [20%] average will remain” until the end of the audits, which allows moving forward with the estimate of 500 million meticais monthly correction.

The TSU was approved in 2022 in order to eliminate asymmetries and keep the state wage bill under control in the medium term, but its start-up caused wages to skyrocket by around 36%, from 11.6 billion meticais/month (169 million euros/month) to 15.8 billion meticais/month (231 million euros/month).

Source: Lusa