The broke Zimbabwe government is eyeing workers' funds stashed in private pension schemes and the National Social Security Authority to service its foreign debts as it seeks to beat the April 2016 deadline it set for promised to international financial institutions.

The government has already committed itself to a herculean task to clear $1.8 billion in arrears owed to international lending institutions by April 2016 as it hopes to unlock the credit lines that have been closed by the same institutions.

The strategy is to pay the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank (WB) and the African Development Bank (AfDB) as was passed at the IMF/World Bank annual meetings in Lima, Peru. Funds would be sourced from the country's own resources, arrangement of bridge finance with regional and international banks, and the usage of bilateral loan facilities.

The state through the Ministry of Finance has already initiated processes to have workers contributions pooled into the national treasury with the schemes getting amounts which they only require at any given time. The development will see private pension schemes and NSSA failing to invest the contributions as they will be in the custody of the state where they will be at the mercy of abuse by the cash strapped government.  

Plans are underway to rope in the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (ZIMRA) in the collection on NSSA dues which would only be disbursed to the treasury in six months periodicals with ZIMRA pocketing 10 percent as collection and handling fees.

The proposal to rake in NSSA funds has also riled trade unionists who feel that the government was interfering on workers funds. NSSA was formed as a tripartite arrangement after the realization that there was no adequate social security for most workers.

Former Labour Minister Paurina Mpariwa said the move by government to waylay for NSSA funds was illegal.

"The proposal to unilaterally pool NSSA funds into the treasury by the ministry of finance is a violation of the NSSA Act. NSSA is a tripartite creature under the ambit of the ministry of labour and interference by any other ministry on workers' funds is illegal. The move exposes workers funds to gross abuse because these funds must be managed by the tripartite partners in agreement," she said.

 Mpariwa added that if government goes ahead with its plans NSSA would be grounded in a few years as its operations would not be prioritized and its investments might be grounded.

"There is no way the treasury will fail to use the NSSA funds to fund other projects given the government's precarious financial position. My fear is that the NSSA core business will be abandoned, pensioners will be worse off than before. When we reviewed the NSSA minimum pension to $60-00 per month we faced fierce resistance from sections within government. We wanted the minimum pension to be well above the $60-00 but there were strong reservations on the implications of giving more to pensioners," she said.

She said it needs to be clear on which ministry was responsible for supervising NSSA as hawks were hovering over the authority for the funds.

Another former minister and an economist Tapiwa Mashakada weighed in saying the government plans showed that it was desperate and going for broke.

"The economy is shrinking and the government is broke, it is now going for predatory tactics to get money by all means without looking at the legality of its actions. It is frantically trying to mop up as much cash from NSSA and pension schemes after committing itself in Lima to pay up arrears by April 2016 when it has nothing in its coffers. There is no guarantee that if the government manages to pay up the arrears it will get more lines of credits because it has for long been a bad debtor," he said.

He said the country was under austerity measures and was likely to suffer more as was the case with the Economic Structural Adjustment Programme.

The Zimbabwe government owes the World Bank $1.15 billion, IMF $110 million, African Development Bank $601 million  and billions to other several countries. 

Meanwhile insurance giant Old Mutual says Zimbabwe's target to clear off its $1,8 billion arrears by April 2016 is ambitious and demands strong political will.

The company's research unit, Old Mutual Securities, in its manager's digest for the third quarter of 2015 report said the country still had a long way to go before servicing its debts and accessing funds from international money markets.

"The Lima target is an ambitious one that can only be achieved by arranging adequate bridging financing with regional banks. Politically real commitment and will has to be shown in meeting IMF targets for access to much needed long term credit and economic recovery," the company said.

Zimbabwe is currently paying a meagre $150 000 a month and it remains to be seen if it can repay the loan given the resistance by stakeholders in social security funds to surrender their funds to treasury.

Old Mutual Securities noted that apart from the promise of access to long term financing, government still had to continue with some of the important plans it has promised financiers.

"This includes arresting the growth in Non-Performing Loans,  Amendments to the Banking Act and RBZ Act in order to increase confidence within the financial sector. Following through with a strategy to lower the civil servant wage bill to below 40 percent of tax revenue; increasing tax revenue collection transparency and expenditure accountability as well as enhanced public sector finance management," the company said.