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Income gap not good for Tanzania, donors say
2008-01-29 09:39:08
By Lusekelo Philemon
Development partners have expressed concern over the wide pay and incentive gap in Tanzania`s public service system, urging the government to do something to reduce it and achieve a rationalized remuneration regime.
Speaking at the official launch of the Public Service Reform Program II, on behalf of other development partners, the World Bank Country Director for Tanzania, Uganda and Burundi John McIntire said the system, if not checked, might frustrate the current reform programme.
``Having a transparent and rationalized pay regime in the public service has been a long standing issue requiring coordinated government efforts,`` he said.
He said differences in payments and incentives in the public service continued to be a challenge and would remain so for a foreseeable future.
``As development partners, we urge the government to maintain its commitment to rationalise and accelerate pay reform and put in place a transparent and rationalised regime of remuneration,`` McIntire said.
He said lack of adequate pay might lead to increased distortions in remuneration and jeopardize the implementation of all reforms.
The development partners were optimistic that the government, through the PSRP, would emphasize the need for enhancing the role of policy-making to respond to the need of the private sector and citizens.
``This will also require government to be more inclusive in its approach to policy-making and be more transparent in reporting to its citizens on its accomplishments and challenges,`` he said.
According to them, the government is required to be more willing to discuss and integrate feedback on its performance on how it moves forward its reform agenda.
The demonstrated political will provides a great incentive to move forward with difficult but necessary reform, if Tanzania is to succeed with its national development agenda, he said.
UK-DFID, Canada, Denmark and the World Bank, have been supporting Tanzania’s reform programmes.
In the PSRP second phase, through their Basket Funding Programme, development partners have injected more than USD 103 million for five years from 2008 to 2012.
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