Government will check public wages

25-OCT-2012 | SAPA | 8 COMMENTS Government could save billions if it kept a closer check on public servants' wages, says Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan inShare RELATED ARTICLES Municipal worker paid for doing nothing 'Government parties while the country burns' 'Public Service being rewarded for mediocre work' Zuma gets bosses to agree to pay freeze Secrecy oath for Durban councillors Gauteng Health Dept under-performs: DA New post office row ANC struggle now a deadly scramble for spoils 'The year that anger boils over' SA's gloomy scenario Listen up, government employees Briefing journalists ahead of delivering his medium-term budget policy statement in the National Assembly, he suggested the State could be paying people who were not actually working. "There are a number of surplus staff within the public service who are actually not deployed to work at this moment in time." Gordhan said there was a "categorical commitment" from Cabinet to unpack the about R340 billion spent on public servants' wages each year. Public Service and Administration Minister Lindiwe Sisulu would be leading this process, supported by National Treasury. "There could be savings of billions if we sort that out," he said. Another issue of concern was inflated salary grades. "We also want to see whether there are, in some instances, too many administration staff compared to skilled staff such as nurses, teachers and doctors," said Gordhan. According to the MTBPS, Treasury will fork out an extra R1.5 billion this year to cater for "higher than expected salary adjustments". Sowetan News - - - - - COMMENTS BY SONNY Does both ministers fall into this category? We hope so. As least one of them is an under achiever!