Was this the week that you applied for a job in statehouse?
Last
week opposition chief whip MP Cecilia Ogwal brought to light a list
that showed state house officials were earning up to a billion shillings
a year in salaries. Frank Tumwebaze, minister of the presidency,
however dismissed the list as erroneous and that his office had already
brought the error to parliament's attention, as well as communicated
the correct position. He accused the opposition of mischief in trying to
score cheap political points with the commotion.
And with that we shelved our CVs.
That
being said it would be bad economics for civil servants to be paid more
than their counterparts in the private sector -- officially. It's a
question of incentives.
"For sustainable development the incentive structure has to be slanted towards the productive sectors of the economy -- agriculture, industry and the private sector in general...
Governments
do not create wealth. They facilitate the private sector to create
wealth through the provision of public goods like national strategy,
security and infrastructure.
Of
course politics will always get in the way of economics. The political
elite are motivated to capture power and once there hang on for as long
as they can. Oftentimes this means dishing out goodies from the public
trough, with loyalty not merit being the major criteria.
This happens everywhere.
In
more developed economies the private sector is of sufficient size and
organized enough to keep their governments in check and focused on their
key role. Not an easy thing to do even there.
Maintaining
that balance makes the difference between descending into a
Zimbabwe-like situation where the economy's productive class has been
totally decimated and there is greater competition to be in the ruling
party's inner circle than there is to get private sector jobs.
Or
being a Sweden, Denmark or Norway where the politics makes it possible
for people to see ever improving welfare, while the private sector can
also survive and thrive.
The
private sector is not the panacea to our development ambitions, after
all it can also run amok as it did during the recent global financial
crisis and any number of economic crises in the last century and beyond.
In fact while the signal for regime collapse often shows up as increasing patronage, sucking resources financial and human capacity from the business community, trouble in the private sector often begins as the rich shift away from production to speculation...
The
collapse of the Roman Empire and the lesser ones of Holland and Spain,
was accelerated by this shift. A situation that observers now say is
happening in the west or in the US more specifically.
This
is not to begrudge statehouse officials an additional zero or a shift
of comma in their take home pay, but it would bode ill for the economy
generally if that were to happen -- officially.
But
it is not impossible. For civil servants to get higher pay two things
have to happen, one, that our tax base rises correspondingly and two,
that government is cut to a more manageable size.
********
And
finally the World Cup is set to come to a close tonight. It's been a
month of delightful, free flowing football in Brazil, the spiritual home
of the game. Amidst the flurry of goals, have been some shockers --
don't remind Brazil, some revelations -- Costa Rica? And confirmation of
some old habits -- Luis "take a bite" Suarez, has he been vaccinated?
Invariably
the cream has risen to the top. The finalists -- Germany and Argentina,
between them have conceded seven goals through out the tournament and
apart from Germany's flurry of goals against the hosts in the
semifinals, both teams have not been particularly prolific in front of
goal.
"At a fundamental level, especially for Germany its been a triumph of collective effort over individual brilliance. That systems and consistency trump the spectacular and solo efforts of the stars. While not pretty, with this systematic and egoless approach, the odds are that it will get the job done more often than not...
The
Germans have the best record in terms of consistency in the World Cup
in the last 40 years, making the semis or better eight of the last
eleven events. There is a lesson for all of us.
Good luck tonight!
