Provinces will battle to cover cost of higher public-sector wage bill
The above-inflation, public-sector wage agreement will add R30bn to government expenditure over the next three years — but where will it come from?
Managing the wage bill will be one of the biggest challenges for provincial budgets over the next three years, Treasury deputy director-general for inter-governmental relations Malijeng Ngqaleni said in parliament on Thursday. This year’s above-inflation, public-sector wage agreement will add R30bn to government expenditure over the next three years, with R6.9bn added to costs in 2018-2019. But national departments, and provincial and local governments were not allocated additional funds in the medium-term budget policy statement (MTBPS) to cover this additional cost. The Treasury has told the three spheres of government that they will have to fund the shortfall by “adjusting within their compensation baselines”. The medium-term budget indicated this would mean increasing efficiency and carefully managing overtime and performance incentives. Finance minister Tito Mboweni has stressed the need to put a brake on the consistently high, real growth in the public-sector wage bill if the ...
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