The abolition of all currently existing bonuses and allowances is among the innovations of the bill amending Law n◦1/28 of August 23, 2006 on the general statute of civil servants, which was unanimously adopted by MPs present in the plenary session on Thursday, December 8, 2022.

The Minister of Public Service, Labor and Employment also specified that this bill aims at the overhaul of the general status of civil servants. The Honorable Déo Rusengwamihigo accuses this so-called general statute to be very little in reality, because of the existence of other statutes of the same legislative level, which have contributed to fragment the civil service into competing groups for special benefits. It is this phenomenon, he regretted, obviously not limited to the statutory dimension, which has given rise to the atomization of the remuneration that is less and less equitable and to the nagging demand for salary harmonization.

Another failure, he added, is the ineffective practice of the current performance evaluation and promotion system. This system treats all agents the same, ensuring them a uniform rate of advancement, regardless of their involvement and results in their duties. It thus prevents any recognition of merit and any punishment of mediocrity.
In order to rectify the situation, the Government of the Republic of Burundi adopted a National Administration Reform Program (PNRA) in 2012, with the objective of initiating a global process of administrative reform that will allow for a substantial improvement in the level of services rendered to citizens and the overall performance of the public administration.

The new remuneration structure, he illustrated, is composed of four elements, namely: : i) the indexed part that determines the basic salary and is linked to the level of qualification at recruitment and seniority; ii) the job part that is linked to the job actually held according to the classification and rating of jobs that took place; iii) the part linked to the individual or personal situation of the civil servant; and finally iv) the performance part that is defined as a one-time supplement to remuneration linked to individual merit in accordance with the Performance Management Policy in the Public Sector (PGPSP).

In spite of this remarkable picture, the MPs were not satisfied with the budgetary impact.
The Government’s envoy, however, was confident that the technicians in the Ministry of Finance were already at work.

The statute of public servants in the health sector has been abrogated in this bill under analysis although they were already advanced in terms of benefits; the MPs expressed their concern to which the Minister Déo Rusengwamihigo replied that the principle of acquired rights remains in place.