Mundubile promises to re-introduce debt swap, says civil servants are drowning in debt
NATIONAL Reconciliation Party of Unity and Progress —NRPUP presidential candidate Brian Mundubile has pledged to re-introduce a debt swap programme for civil servants and address the long-standing backlog of teacher upgrades if elected into office.
Speaking on what he terms as the challenges facing public service workers, Mundubile says many civil servants are struggling under heavy debt burdens due to reportedly unpaid government obligations, forcing them to seek loans to meet their financial needs
“If you look at the civil servants today, they are drowning in debt. They are highly indebted because government owes them money, and as a result they have had to go and borrow,” he says.
Mundubile describes many public workers as the “working poor,” arguing that a motivated civil service is critical to effective public service delivery.
He says his administration would implement a debt swap programme under which government would settle outstanding obligations owed to civil servants while also taking over debts they had accumulated from external lenders.
“As a responsible government that would like to have a motivated civil service, we will implement debt swap. Government will liquidate whatever obligations they have for the civil servant and at the same time take up the obligations the civil servants may have contracted outside their work environment,” he says.
Mundubile further highlights the plight of teachers who have upgraded their qualifications but remain on lower salary scales.
He notes that approximately 50,000 teachers were awaiting upgrades despite obtaining higher academic qualifications, including degrees, master’s degrees and doctorates.
“These are people who entered the teaching service as certificate holders, but today some are degree holders, some have master’s degrees and some have PhDs, yet they are still being paid at entry scale,” he says.
He pledges to clear the backlog of teacher upgrades and extend similar considerations to other public service workers who have improved their qualifications.
Mundubile describes the proposed measures as “soft solutions” that would not require substantial resources, arguing that civil servants deserve to be compensated according to their qualifications and the level of service they provide.
“These civil servants have improved themselves. They are providing a service at a different level and should be compensated as such. We will implement that,” the NRPUP presidential candidate said this when he featured on a Millennium TV program.