• There is need to be mindful of teachers’ economic status.
• If the recoveries are effected now, the teachers will be more vulnerable and highly demotivated.
• Government must clear outstanding arrears it owes teachers before effecting recoveries.
National Action for Quality Education in Zambia (NAQEZ) in Kapiri Mposhi district of Central Province has called on Government to defer or completely write off the recovery of allowances purported to have been erroneously paid to public officials in the Ministry of Education.
In a statement, NAQEZ Provincial Secretary Dr. Justine Kabungo said Government’s plans to recover the purported overpayments of teachers effectively 1st July, 2022 will morally kill the affected teachers because the economy is still too unfriendly.
Dr. Kabungo stated that while the organization does not support and tolerate illegalities, there is need to be mindful of teachers’ economic status, adding that if the recoveries are effected now, the teachers will be more vulnerable and highly demotivated.
He suggested that government should consider effecting the recoveries later when the economy improves as indicators show that the economy is not very far from reaching an improved level of performance.
“For the sake of creating and maintaining highly motivated teaching staff in Central Province and the entire country, NAQEZ in Central Province is requesting Government, our parent, to exercise leniency and possibly write off the purported overpayments.”
“According to NAQEZ’s independent findings on housing allowances, the majority of the teachers captured by the Auditor General’s report to be receiving housing allowances are in rural areas,” Dr. Kabungo said.
He further urged government to clear outstanding arrears it owes teachers before effecting recoveries from those who erroneously received the allowances in question.
Dr. Kabungo also urged government to introduce recoveries to the end-users as well by deducting according to the people they allowed to receive those undeserving allowances.
He stated that doing so will reduce or likely, eliminate the vice completely as no one will want to be found in the predicament.
“The issue of double-class and responsibility allowance is a two-face problem. It is corruption that involves two players, suspended the teacher and the end-user. Logically, the teacher alone cannot effect these allowances without the end-user.”
“It is our considered view as NAQEZ that the government should put to task end-users for having broken the law instead of Government rushing to punish teachers and leaving out the real culprits who are end-users,” he stated.
According to Ministry of Finance, the Office of the Auditor General recently conducted an audit of the payroll for the Ministry of Education for the Financial Years 2017 to 2021, targeted at ascertaining the correctness of remunerations paid to serving public officials.
The audit discovered irregularities in the payments of various allowances in the Ministry of Education amounting K209, 542, 271. 31, which government intends to recover.
