The Mozambican Parliament approved by consensus the Single Salary Table (TSU) for public administration, an instrument defended by the government as essential for retaining staff and secure fairness of salaries in state institutions.
TSU was approved by consensus among the three benches of the Mozambican parliament, receiving prolonged applause from all deputies and being one of the few documents that received unanimous approval.
The Minister of Economy and Finance, Max Tonela, who defended the text in parliament, said that the table will promote salary justice, retain staff and save resources for the state.
“It essentially aims to stabilize the state’s employees and agents in public administration, to achieve salary balance between similar professional careers, and to rationalize the salary scales and the respective subsidies,” he emphasized.
He added that the new remuneration and career framework materializes the reform of the salary policy by introducing transparent rules and criteria in the setting of civil servants’ salaries.
Reacting to the approval of the TSU, António Niquice, MP for the ruling party Frente de Libertaço de Moçambique (Frelimo), with a parliamentary majority, said that the new rules are also a step to fight corruption.
“Wage injustice is usually pointed out as one of the arguments for corruption in public administration and with the TSU, we believe that this pretext has been eliminated,” said Niquice, who is also president of the Planning and Budget Commission (CPO) of the Assembly of the Republic.
The deputy pointed out that the new salary matrix will also help to contain the uncontrolled growth of the wage bill in public administration, bringing salary expenses closer to the standards of Southern Africa.
Gania Mussagy, MP for the Mozambican National Resistance (Renamo), the main opposition party, argued that the TSU should have a real impact on improving life in the civil service, which has been “very punished by low salaries.”
Fernando Bismarque, MP and spokesman for the third party Democratic Movement of Mozambique (MDM), pointed out the merit of the TSU in promoting salary justice, and defending the correct implementation of the new rules.
“The TSU will not work miracles in the lives of state employees, unfortunately, because what it essentially achieves is to correct injustices through a correct framing of each employee in his or her career,” he declared.
The new salary matrix in the state has 21 levels, between 8,756 and 165,758 meticais (between 134 and 2,580 euros), instead of 103 levels, as was the case previously.
The Mozambican government believes that the new “salary pyramid” in the state will reduce the weight of civil service salaries from the current around 13% of GDP to 8% in the next four years.