Limpopo spends the most on salaries in South Africa
This warning was issued by the MEC for Treasury, Seaparo Sekoati, when he tabled the department's budget speech at Legislature last Tuesday.
POLOKWANE – Limpopo is the province with the highest percentage of the budget spent on the compensation of employees (COE). This warning was issued by the MEC for Treasury, Seaparo Sekoati, when he tabled the department’s budget speech at Legislature last Tuesday.
A rough calculation done by BONUS, in terms of employee compensation in the Education Department, points to a staggering 81% or R26 billion spent just to pay employees out of a budget of R32,291 billion.
You might also want to read: Here are the highlights of the Budget Speech 2019
Sekoati, however, said various instruments were put in place, such as the implementation of the Persal block and instructions that all vacancies to be filled has to be granted permission by Treasury, continues to bear fruit in reducing the high provincial wage bill.
“Provincial departments prioritise personnel budgets to provide for critical posts only and the budget for compensation of employees is ring-fenced,” Sekoati said.
“The province has been able to maintain the cost of employees cost below 70% of the total provincial budget from 2017/18 to date and 69% was achieved in the 2018/19 financial year. More effort is required to further reduce the percentage spent on COE cost and to close the gap between Limpopo and the national provincial average of just above 60% of the budget.”
He said departments are urged to encourage their staff members aged from 52 years to take early retirement packages without penalties as introduced by the Department of Public Service and Administration.
He added that the implementation of cost-containment measures linked to procurement reforms has also been successfully applied to reduce and contain expenditure on non-essential goods and services.
According to Department Spokesperson, Sam Makondo the department, unlike other departments, is labour intensive and the system can easily collapse if the department lowers the norms.
