06 Mar 2016

Assistant Minister of Education and Skills Development, Mr Fidelis Molao says there are cases, although isolated, where temporary teachers would go for some time without getting their wages due to depletion of funds in the relevant votes.

“Where such cases exist, we vire funds to enable the processing of payments within the shortest possible time,” he said. 

Mr Molao said in order to avoid such incidents in the future, relevant officers had been advised to continuously monitor their expenditure patterns against the balances in their votes. 

Mr Molao also said he was aware of delayed payments of leave and severance benefits of temporary teachers, adding that it was common in 2014 and the first half of 2015. 

This, he said, was mainly because of shortage of funds in relevant votes and delayed submission of the necessary attachments for processing beneficiaries payments in some instances.

“I would like to assure this Honourable House that we have since addressed these contributing factors to safeguard against recurrence of the same situation,” he said. 

He added that “continuous sensitisation of the relevant officers on the need to expedite the payment process and on the beneficiaries to submit the necessary documentation on time has improved the situation.”

Francistown West MP, Mr Ignatius Moswaane had wanted to know if the minister was aware that temporary teachers in some schools went for months without getting their wages.

He also wanted to know if the minister was aware that temporary teachers whose contracts had been terminated sometimes went for more than six to 12 months without being paid their severance and leave pay.

The Francistown West MP further wanted the minister to state the remedial actions to be taken to avoid the situation, and to help those who had been affected. Ends