HARARE - The Grain Marketing Board (GMB) will this year spend about US$1 million on a retrenchment exercise aimed at .....curbing over-staffing, and about 246 workers will lose jobs during the initial phase.
GMB has staff costs, which are currently pegged at US$200 000, and the board aims to reduce the figure to around US$50 000.
The resolution came was reached after a six-day workshop, which was held in Harare last week.
The workshop, which was attended by the permanent secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture Mechanisation and Irrigation Development, Ngoni Masoka, was part of the GMBs 2010 strategic planning seeking to take stockof their achievements and to take corrective measures on missed targets.
GMB Chairperson, Charles Chikaura, said the strategic workshop was designed
to deal with many overhead costs, while ensuring that the institution remained adequately capacitated to perform its national mandate.
This strategy has become unavoidable after special measures undertaken to avoid retrenchment failed to achieve the intense results. A total of US$62 294.00 shall be spent on voluntary retrenchment while compulsory retrenchments of about 246 employees will be achieved at an estimated cost of US$1milion, he said.
Chikaura said their main goal was to turn GMB into a strategic national player by consolidating the current business.
Our strategy will be to use the GMBs current vast asset base to create
value for shareholders and to fund Structural Grain Reserve without recourse to the fiscus. We are therefore putting our efforts into farmer support services so that
GMB remains central in dealing with market failures and ensuring viability of the farming business and to achieve our national mandate of ensuring food security, said Chikaura.
The Board Chairperson said GMB was currently not a viable business and there was need for a revival mode.
He said the Grain Board had a monthly deficit of at least US$200 000.
Our total revenue inflows average US$1 500 000 per month, while operating expenses average US$1 700 000 per month, he said.
Chikaura also told staff that restructuring GMB business remained a high priority, as it would be underpinned by the growth of its commercial business.
Last year GMB had the same strategic planning which was crafted in Kodoma and resolved to scale up the operations of the Board.
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