… As Agency promises to clear arrears by next week
Brighton Chiseva
There could be little joy for around 40 000 people who were employed by the Zimbabwe Statistics Agency (ZIMSTAT) but are yet to be paid for their service during the household and population census exercise held earlier this year as the statistics body promised to clear arrears before September 15.
Speaking to TellZim News, ZIMSTAT spokesperson Mercy Chidemo said they are busy processing the money for enumerators and will have the outstanding dues cleared by end of next week.
“We are currently processing the payments and by September 15, we would have cleared all the balances,” said Chidemo.
The enumerators who were drawn mainly from the civil service with teachers constituting a bigger number were only paid allowances for training workshops they did before the actual exercise of counting people got underway.
The enumerators are also complaining about the rate at which inflation had affected their allowances saying the money is now useless.
“We waited for the money for a longer period than we anticipated and paying it now brings less joy as it has already been affected by inflation. In April the rate was around ZW$ 150: US$ 1 but now it’s more than ZW$ 500: US$. If we had been paid in April, I could have used the money for something touchable but now the money is useless unless they pay us an amount that is equivalent to the US$ rate that was there in April,” said one enumerator.
Another one complained about the payment being done in batches saying they hope when their employer pays them, they would release the funds at once.
“What is more worrying is that they pay in batches, the batches are too little and is not systematic, others get paid while others are left out on the disbursement of the batches but we did the same work. This time around, they should pay the balances at once,” said another enumerator.
Some allege someone in the agency’s hierarchy is playing with them saying when the programmes are rolled out, the budgets would be there only to be told that there are no funds after the exercise.
“Our money was used for something else and they now want to give us when it no longer has any meaningful value. When the programme is rolled out, the budgets would have been approved meaning there will be money to pay the enumerators but the money suddenly disappear after the programme.
“They could have diverted the money towards other uses and they now want to pay us when it has been eroded by inflation,” said the source.
The enumerators are currently threatening legal action against ZIMSTAT which they accuse of violating labour laws.
This is not the first time enumerators have accused the agency of neglect after some civil servants could not access their dues after being deposited in to wrong accounts due to mix-up that took centre stage soon after the training which they were paid for.
Quite a number of people who participated in the trainings failed to get allowances timeously prompting some to visit the agency’s offices to sort out the mess.
The civil servants are also being owed money by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) who hired them to conduct voter education in June before the yet to be started process of delimitation.
