Sumbawanga — RUKWA: SUMBAWANGA Municipal Council (SMC) in the Rukwa region has failed to pay public school teachers and vendors some 2.9bn/- for the last seven years.
Now, teachers and suppliers are up in arms wanting to be paid their long dues in areas of salaries, transfers, medical treatment, and some retirement benefits that have gone unpaid since 2016.
The public school teachers demand more than 917m/- being unsettled transfer arrears alone that accumulated for the past seven years.
The SMC Director Ms Catherine Mashala said the municipality admitted the council owes public school teachers, vendors and other civil servants that have been unsettled for some time now.
"The unpaid claims are transfer, salaries, medical treatment, leaves and retirement benefits lessons as well as claims of retired teachers," she said over the weekend shortly after handing over a 65.8m/- mini-bus to Tanzania Teacher Union (TTU) in Sumbawanga.
She further appealed to the central government to settle some of the unclaimed arrears because the municipality alone could not afford to settle all 2.9bn/- unpaid arrears.
"The municipality can pay part of the unclaimed amount from its source.
This is an uphill task because the municipality's domestic revenue is [around] 2.7bn/- per fiscal year," Ms Mashala said.
She further said the 2.9bn/- claims have been quantified and verified as the actual unpaid salaries and non-salaries demanded by municipal civil servants, public school teachers and vendors.
Initially, TTU Municipal Chairperson Mr Huruma Kilingo said unpaid claims are demoralising several teachers thus eroding the quality of education delivered.
"Teachers have been demoralised...but I'm appealing to them that they should continue to work hard and responsibly as TTU continues to remind the government of the importance of paying teachers claims on time," he said.
Additionally, Mr Kilingo said that though the government is committed to improving teachers' welfare, it should also resolve all challenges facing them, including paying their claims on time.
