Economists are urging the Zimbabwe government to install biometric attendance controls at civil service offices, to cut the public wage bill and improve productivity.Prosper Chitambara of Labour and Economic Development Research Institute of Zimbabwe (LEDRIZ) made the call at a workshop on labour costs.Chitambara said growth in the public wage bill has outstripped growth in real domestic product with government employment accounting for a significant share of the labour force which is reportedly munching much of government revenue.”The biometric system will capture the data of each and every civil servant and will plug out ghost employees. This will reduce the public wage bill and the resource saved can be channelled to developmental projects,” said Chitambira.He said the biometric payroll which has been implemented in countries like Ghana Nigeria and Kenya will be used to effect salary payments.He added that, “Through the use of biometric public service employees and pensioners can be accurately identified and ghost workers can be easily removed from the pay roll.African Corporate Advisors managing director Mike Nyamazana said biometrics could prove key in reducing costs, reported The Herald.
Zimbabwe govt told to consider biometric payroll
