Tanzania: Govt Plays Carrot and Stick Game with Medics

By Henry Neondo

DAR-ES-SALAAM---A day after President Jakaya Kikwete dared medical doctors now on strike to quit civil service if dissatisfied with their salaries, Tanzanian government has said it has raised its wage bill by 15.6 per cent.

In a well orchestrated move to either entice medics back to work or show them the resolve by the government’s threats of exploring other options should they quit, the government said through Ms Celina Kombani, who also is minister in the President’s office in charge of Public Service Management, hinted that it would conduct a survey on salaries and remuneration in the public and private sectors to adjust salaries and remuneration of public servants.

The increment does not, however, factor the demands by the country’s medical staff on strike.

Presenting her ministry's 2012/13 annual budget estimates in Parliament, a Minister in the President's Office (Public Service Management), said the wage bill had been increased by Tsh510.807 billion.

According to her, the government will spend Tsh 3.781 trillion on salaries, promotions and payment of arrears for employees in central government, local government and government agencies and institutions.

She was however silent on the ongoing strike by medical doctors.

Since Saturday last week, medics working for government-run health facilities embarked on an indefinite strike after the failure of negotiations over improved working conditions and salaries with their employer.

According to officials of the doctors’ interim association, Dr Stephen Ulimboka, doctors resolved to go on strike as the government was not ready to deal with their grievances.

In a well-coordinated government snub of the medics, the minister’s statement on the wage bill came hot on the heels of President Jakaya Kikwete’s public outburst over the doctors’ strike.

In his end month address to the nation, Mr Kikwete said the government has made efforts to meet most of the doctors' demands, noting that some of their requests were beyond the government's means and that they (the doctors) have been receiving preferential treatment as it is.

 "Some of the doctors' demands are far-fetched like the increment in salaries. The government simply cannot give in to all that the doctors’ wish. If there are those who are not satisfied then they can just leave public service," he said.  

Kikwete cautioned that the doctors’ demand that their salaries be tripled -- from 950,000 Tanzanian shillings ($620) per month to 3.5 million shillings, plus allowances -- are unreasonable.

He said the government was willing to offer at most a salary of 1.2 million shillings.

At the moment, he noted, doctors get paid twice as much as graduates who start employment in the civil service and thus some of their demands are misplaced. 

Kikwete disclosed that the public sector pay socks in almost half (48 per cent) of the government’s budget.

"This level is too huge. A good ratio is to have a wage bill not exceeding 35 percent of the budget so 65 percent of the budget can be used to finance services and other development projects," he added.

The president said it is important for the doctors and their leaders to realize that they are involved in an illegal matter and that they may lose their jobs and will have nowhere and no one to turn to. 

The President’s anger may have been precipitated by the failure by the medics to toe the line after a meeting with the Prime Minister Mizengo Pinda. 

Sources intimate that the PM had appealed to the medics to shun the strike as it was illegal.

According to the Prime Minister whose office is charged with negotiating with the doctors since their previous strike in January this year, the government had reached an agreement with the medics to move their case from the Commission for Mediation and Arbitration to the Labour Court for final decision.

“The government is still determined to discuss the doctors’ concerns amicably,” said Pinda.

Officials of the doctors’ association, however, rejected the Prime Minister’s statement and appeal, maintaining that there was no deal.

“We haven’t agreed on any of the demands we forwarded to the government,” said Dr Godbless Charles, deputy chair of the association. 

Mrs Kombani disclosed later that the government would conduct a workforce and payment audit to make sure the existing staff work efficiently and are paid accordingly. 

She intimated that the government may opt to hire more staff to meet any shortfall should some of the doctors on strike leave their stations of duty.

Tanzania, one of the poorest, has world’s weakest health care systems.

The United National Human Development Report says Tanzania had only two physicians per 100,000 residents as of 2007 and that given the country’s population of some 45 million, the country likely has less than 1,000 doctors.