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Pamela Shumba Senior Reporter
THE Civil Service Commission (CSC) is unable to fill vacant posts in different government departments as treasury does not have money to cater for new recruitments, a cabinet minister said yesterday.Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare Minister Cde Nicholas Goche told Chronicle on the sidelines of a police graduation parade in Ntabazinduna that addressing the critical staff shortage especially in the education sector hinged on the Ministry of Finance’s approval.

While acknowledging the need to fill critical vacant posts, the minister said the CSC’s hands were tied.

“It’s true that there’s a shortage of teachers in schools and the CSC wants all those posts to be filled. The challenge is that it’s not possible to do so because of the current employment freeze,” said Cde Goche. “If the Ministry of Finance gives us the green light to employ more teachers, we would do so without hesitation and this would definitely address the challenges that we have in schools.”

There is growing concern that manpower shortage is hampering quality of service in public institutions, especially in the education and health sectors.

Recently President Mugabe called for the lifting of the recruitment freeze in heath sector to revitalise health service delivery. Since 2012 the then Public Service Commission, now CSC, advised all ministry heads that there shall be no creation of new posts or filling of vacant posts citing budgetary constraints.

The move has a negative effect on schools in particular, who have to rely on untrained teachers while scores of qualified teachers remain jobless, resulting in poor pass rates.

Earlier on in his speech Cde Goche said the government was committed to improving salaries and conditions of service for its workers despite the prevailing socio-economic conditions in the country.

“One of the vital aspects of the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-Economic Transformation (Zim-Asset) is the improvement of conditions of service for civil servants but the socio-economic conditions have not made it possible,” he said.

“However, government is equally committed to implementing non-monetary incentives like the provision of housing, vehicles and land for agriculture processes.”

Cde Goche said his ministry and that of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing and NSSA have agreed on a programme to assist civil servants across the country to own houses built at low cost. He acknowledged the challenges affecting the police service saying their employer was working tirelessly to ensure the organisation got sufficient funding to fulfill its mandate.

A total of 313 police officers, 80 of them female, graduated at the event after completing a six-month training programme.

Police Commissioner General Augustine Chihuri, Ministers of State for Bulawayo and Matabeleland North provinces Cdes Nomthandazo Moyo and Cain Mathema and senior government officials also attended the event.