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State to keep close watch on wage bill

Cape Town - The risks to safeguard fiscal sustainability include a huge public sector wage bill and growth in employment and earnings will therefore receive special attention, according to the mini budget tabled in parliament on Wednesday by Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan.

Specific attention will be paid to restraining growth in administrative posts, and government aims to maintain staff numbers at a constant level over the next three years. Exceptions will require a compelling explanation, the mini budget warns.

Salary adjustments to the February national budget amount to an additional R2.3bn. 

Government is committed to reaching a sustainable public sector wage agreement, according to the document. The National Treasury and the department of public service and administration are working to improve the monitoring of wage bill trends and enforce discipline in hiring of new personnel.

The mini budget states that since 2005 more than 250 000 personnel have been added to national and provincial government payrolls, with the largest increases in education, healthcare and criminal justice.

While most of the new positions were created for teachers, nurses and police officers, there is concern about the growth of managerial and administrative staffing across government.

Growth in the public sector wage bill has exceeded the inflation rate over the past several years.

This is partly due to the implementation of occupation-specific dispensations for skilled and experienced staff to match similarly skilled professionals in the private sector.

It also reflects above-inflation annual wage settlements.

 - Fin24
 
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