Z.B.C BOSS GETS MORE THAN OBAMA

Z.B.C BOSS EARNS MORE THAN OBAMA and ZUMA The recent shocking disclosures about the salaries of former Z.B.C C.E.O and the head of the Premier Service Medical Aid Society bring to the fore the need for adherence to sound corporate governance frameworks including public disclosure . It is interesting to note that the salaries of Cuthbert Dube and the Z.B.C boss exceed the salaries of the United States of America President , Barack Obama ,British Prime Minister David Cameron and South Africa President Jacob Zuma .The suspended Z.B.C boss was reported to be earning in the region of U.S 40,000 a month whilst Cuthbert Dube around U.S 230,000 a month .President Obama of America whose currency we are using to pay public fat cats earns U.S400,000 per annum whilst Jacob Zuma earns in the region of U.S260,000 per year which is lower than what the Z.B.C boss earns .The Prime Minister of our erstwhile former colonizers David Cameron gets an annual salary of pound1,8 million pounds or around 12,083 Pounds per month which is well below what the C.MAS and Z.B. C boss are getting . Comparatively If we compare what the Z.B.C C.E.O is earning and what his counterparts in other parts of the world are getting the results are quite alarming .The B.B.C Executive director for Scotland gets in the region of U.S 185,000 pounds which translates to less than 15,000 pound per year per year .The Northern Ireland B.B.C director earns around 145,000 pounds per annum and oversees around 600 staff members .Moreover the B.B..C has an annual turnover of around 150 million pounds .It can be then argued that they are paying what they can afford whilst the same cannot be said of their Zimbabwean counterpart who heads the Z.B.C which has reportedly been making losses for countless years but can still afford to overpay its C.E.O and underpay the rest of the workers .That the Z.B.C boss is actually earning more than his counterparts in the United Kingdom is shocking and such evidence demands not just an explanation but an overhaul of public service institutions . The salary of the Z.B.C C.E.O is equivalent to paying 40 Z.B.C workers at U.S 1,000 per month whilst monthly salary bill of PSMAS top executives [around I million dollars ] can complete five well equipped clinics or purchase a full complement of dialysis machines or pay at l0 senior doctors 100,000 each per month . It is a monumental moral scandal of gigantic proportions that the beneficiaries of medical aid schemes especially civil servants and more specifically the 700,000 members of PSMAS have struggled to access medical aid benefits whilst top executives continue to roll on the lap of luxury . In contrast to the B.B.C ,the Z.B.C has continued to be a loss making entity in spite of having a monopoly over broadcasting especially television for over a third of a century . This is not about individuals such as Cuthbert Dube but more about systems of corporate governance or the lack thereof ,public accountability ,financial probity and stewardship over scarce public funds .One wonders what happened to the corporate governance framework which was put in place by the former minister of Parastatals Gorden Moyo which proposed salary cuts for state enterprises executives .Heather Brookes in her book The Silent State [an exposition of state excesses in the British Public Sector]argues that examples of good public administration include “full disclosure /clear statement of costs, detailed line budgets and transparent budgets.”It is the duty of boards of public enterprises and institutions to ensure that the budgets of their enterprises do not legitimize obscene salaries and unjustifiable budgetary allocations at the expense of service delivery whilst line ministries should ensure that appropriate corporate good governance systems are in place reflecting the principles of good corporate governance as outlined in section 194 of the constitution .This includes “efficient and economical use of resources “[Section 194,1 b and section 195 of the constitution which speaks to the imperative of state controlled entities conforming to standard of corporate governance .On our part as ordinary citizens we have a right to know how resources that are collected from us through taxes ,contributions and rates are used . We have a right to know !