The Public Service Commission (PSC) has started to implement the first phase of the retention allowances payments to civil servants under the Skills Attraction, Retention and Development Fund (SARDF).
The retention allowance is aimed at attracting highly competent professionals into Government service and ensuring those already employed do not leave the civil service due to low remuneration.
In a statement on Wednesday, PSC secretary Tsitsi Choruma said the first phase will target 11 categories of critical skills with total pay benchmarked to local and regional earning levels.
Grades from the deputy director and below will be eligible for the allowances.
Engineers, information and communication technology specialists, mining surveyors, forensic scientists, architects, veterinary officers, quantity surveyors, social development officers, psychologists, metallurgists, and legal drafters make up the 11 categories.
Choruma said the allowance was set at 70 percent of the basic salary of the member’s grade. She said:
The identification of jobs was based on the high level of attrition in these categories and also the difficulty in filling the posts once a vacancy arises.
The retention allowance for the job categories has been benchmarked using the salary levels obtaining on the market as observed from different salary surveys both locally and regionally.
As additional resources become available, more jobs will be added to the list, and the retention allowance improved.
The Ministry of Finance and Economic Development had allocated ZWL$1.512 billion for the SARDF to pay the retention allowances.
More: Pindula News
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