By BUUMBA CHIMBULU
GOVERNMENT has effected the debt swap scheme for civil servants with net pay for the July salaries indicating an increased amount from previous earnings which were hitting their bank accounts.
Pay slips presented to the media by the Ministry of Finance showed an increased net pay for civil servants whose salary for this month, for example, improved to about K8, 000 from K3, 500 from previous months.
This exercise is not an additional cost to doing Government business, according to Secretary to the Treasury, Fredson Yamba.
Mr Yamba explained that the amounts for payment of arrears were already budgeted for and multilateral institutions had advised Government to reduce arrears.
“This exercise is cost neutral to Government. It is a debt swap where Government pays what the civil servants owe to the banks only to the extent that the civil servants are owing Government.
“The reconciliation will take a maximum of three months, after which the actual amounts involved will be ascertained. The actual amounts involved in the exercise are yet to be determined as the reconciliation exercise is still on-going,” Mr Yamba said during his visit to Payroll Management Establishment Control offices yesterday.
He said the exercise would be cost neutral to Government as the amounts would be offset against what it was owing civil servants.
And Public Service Management Division (PSMD) Permanent Secretary, Boniface Chimbwali, stressed that the exercise was a clear demonstration on the part of Government to bail out employees.
Mr Chimbwali expressed hope that the relief would enhance motivation in the civil service, going forward, as it had been applied to every civil servant who owed.
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