Errors committed by the government and Ennahda build up over days. Today, it happens that it is the public service that pays the bill.
Minister of Training and Employment, Naoufel Jemmali, who was present on Wednesday at the fair “Job CONECT,” organized at the initiative of the Confederation of Tunisian Citizen Enterprises (CONECT), created a surprise when he announced that the number of civil servants has reached, to date, 700,000 against 500,000 before the Revolution.
The information sparked controversy on social networks: “What reforms can you do with this huge burden? Which recovery could be engaged? The governments of Jebali and Laârayadh leave a minefield of bombs with pins removed and banana peels that the next government, whatever its composition, will find it difficult to manage! And with every passing day with the Troika in power there is an additional gap that is widening.” This is what Moez Joudi said on his face book page.
The budget deficit will reach 10 %
Asked by Africanmanager, he said that the Tunisian administration suffers today, from redundancy. At the same time, public spending increased by 30%, mainly because of uncontrolled recruitment. During the years 2012 and 2013, some 61,000 people were recruited into the public service, he noted, stressing that if recruitment continues at this rate, the budget deficit will reach 10 % against 7.4 % currently.
Moez Joudi accused, in this context, the government of irresponsibility, unconsciousness and mismanagement and of having saturated the Tunisian administration for political purposes and according to partisan membership. Note that , according to our own sources, more than 6,900 people hired since the Revolution were recruited from among the families of martyrs , the wounded of the revolution and beneficiaries of the general amnesty.
In the same vein, Moez Joudi said, according to a recent report by the World Bank, the Tunisian government can run with 350,000 employees, which is not the case today, since the figure is the double. He added that uncontrolled recruitment penalizes the Tunisian administration. In addition, it will have no positive effect, knowing that 80% of income taxes are used to pay the debts.
36.2 % of the budget go to salaries!
For his part, Mohamed Salah Ayari, academic and tax expert, told us that the resort to employment in the public service was an obligation because, he said, to solve the problem of unemployment, it is necessary to arrive at a growth rate of 7%, which, in the present state of things, is impossible because of the low profitability of the public sector and the difficulties faced by Tunisia to attract foreign investment due to political and security instability.
He added that Tunisian investors should be the first to invest, which is impossible in view of the pressures on businessmen. It should be recalled that a 1% growth equates to 16,000 new jobs.
He also said that the salaries of civil servants have increased the budget of the state since they represent the bulk of expenditure. In 2013, 9.7 billion dinars have been allocated to salaries in the public service against 8.8 billion dinars in the year 2012, i.e. 34.4% of the state budget of 2012 and 36.2 % of the budget of 2013, explaining that these recruitments are not profitable and that the troika is seeking to convince Tunisians that it is in the process of creating job positions, whereas it is only burdening the budget.
No relation to growth!
For his part, economist Abdeljelil Bedoui said that the resort to recruitment in the public sector is linked to several difficulties including mainly the regression of the contribution of the private sector to job creation, noting, however, that the number of employees of the Gafsa Phosphate Company (CPG), for example, has reached now 7,500 employees against 5,000 before the revolution.
He said, moreover, that the recruitment done recently has no connection with the growth / employment relationship, stating that they are made for reasons related to the re-integration of persons excluded or for solidarity purposes. According to him, recruitment today is chaotic and unwieldy and will undermine the efficiency of the administration and its profitability.
He added that anarchic appointments that do not meet the criteria of competence and experience may undermine the credibility of the administration. According to him, many entrepreneurs complain about the delay in the processing of files in ministries, due to the lack of skills.
