SECURITY PERSONNEL COSTS

As the whispers grow louder that government will not be able to pay its civil servant wage bill in June, there is a notable claim in the US State Department's Human Rights Report for 2010 (HERE).

Under s 1(d) 'Role of the police and security apparatus', the report states that:

"Approximately, 40 percent of the government's workforce is allocated to security."

If true, that is a shocking figure. Nationmaster lists Swaziland as 19th out of 163 in terms of military expenditure as a % of GDP (HERE). But the personnel costs are stated as quite low (HERE). If these figures are true, that would mean police, correctional services, customs, private security contractors and spies are making up a huge swathe of government employees.