Lynda Loxton
As the rand continues its shaky path and investor perceptions remain wary about the ability of the government to deliver on its ambitious macroeconomic plan, government officials are quietly and determinedly working to ensure that stringent budget-cutting targets are met.
Whether the political implications will still upset the applecart remains to be seen, but the budget for 1997/98 is fast taking shape behind closed doors.
The parliamentary finance committee heard this week that the finance department had already set total central and provincial government spending targets for the next budget, bearing in mind the plan
to achieve a 4% budget deficit by 1998.
State Expenditure director general Hannes Smit said the budget committee would meet today (Friday) to finalise the figures, which would then be presented to Cabinet for approval before individual government departments are told of their allocations.
But, as the committee also heard from Public Service Commission deputy director general Fanie Visser, doing the actual downsizing on the ground in various departments to reduce spending was proving to be a difficult task.
So much so, he said, that it had been suggested to departments to do a manual headcount of civil servants in a last-ditch attempt to find out exactly how many civil servants are on government’s payroll.
The “balkanisation” of South Africa under the apartheid regime had left a totally incomplete record of the number of staff who were paid by the state.
“A lot of people say there are ghosts in the system and finding out how many there are can only be done on a manual basis,” said Public Service Commission special adviser John Ernstzen.
He was referring to the fact that several provinces had reported that people not employed by the government were receiving state salaries.
According to some estimates, South Africa has 1,25- million national and provincial civil servants who will cost the country R64,1-billion in 1996/97.
Trade unions and the PSC have agreed that the civil service should be “rightsized” or “downsized” by anything up to 200 000 posts by 1997/98. This would be linked to salary improvements for the lowest paid and to retain skilled staff.
But Ernstzen said this was not a simple matter.
Democratic South Africa in effect inherited 11 civil services from the apartheid state and its “homelands” or “self-governing territories” created for various black groups.
Visser told the committee that although progress had been made in rationalising posts and weeding out duplications, officials were still trying to work out how many civil servants were needed to deliver services efficiently and effectively throughout the country.
But it was more difficult to pin down how many civil servants there were because computerised payroll and staff record systems had not yet been introduced countrywide.
“The figures that we receive from some provinces appear to be inaccurate,” he said.
Committee members said it was “worrying” that the latest figures from the Central Statistical Service (CSS) showed that the number of people employed by national government had increased from 572 000 in December 1995 to 587 000 in March 1996.
Visser said he was not aware of this but would report back to the committee.