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Irregular hiring of civil servants uncovered

03/11/2010 00:00:00 BANELE DLAMINI

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STORIES BY BANELE DLAMINI

MBABANE-The Ministry of Public Service has complained that other ministries hire people without following proper procedure.

This is contained in the ministry’s second quarter budget performance report.

The report was tabled by Minister Mtiti Fakudze in the House of Assembly last week and is yet to be debated by the portfolio committee.

In the report Fakudze laments that government employment procedure continues to be flouted by ministries.

This is despite that the ministry has a "strong desire to adhere to the fundamental principles of good governance, regarded universally as a key requirement and prerequisite for an effective and efficient public service."

The minister reports that the rightful employment authorities are continually ignored in some ministries.

"Ministries continue to disregard relevant appointing authorities thus engage people without appropriate authority, and request authority retrospectively," said the minister in the report.

This happens while government has adopted a zero growth policy for most ministries.

The Management Services Division (MSD) is tasked with ensuring that ministries adhere to this position.

"The department in its endeavour to achieve a leaner, efficient and effective civil service has continued to review and apply organisation and method techniques to analyse and determine the need of the new posts requested," he said.

In the interim ministries that have requested new posts have been instructed to trade in redundant posts for the new ones instead.

However, the minister adds; "Filling of vacancies is not static and had difficulty tracing exact stage of process to fill each vacancy."

Another area of concern for the ministry is that ministries and departments do not effect staff appraisals.

The minister reported that ministries are "unable to observe stipulated schedule for performance appraisal forms," and that "use of performance appraisals still not fully appreciated."

To address this, the ministry will continue to sensitise human resource officers to enforce performance appraisals.

Moreover, the ministry has noted that ministries still fail to pay new staff within a month of employment as promised by the Prime Minister Sibusiso Barnabas Dlamini.

...civil servants reduce age to beat retirement

MBABANE-The Ministry of Public Service is battling with the increase in civil servants reducing their age to beat retirement.

This is revealed by the Minister Mtiti Fakudze in the ministry’s second quarter budget performance report. Yet to be debated, the report was tabled before the House of Assembly last week.

While the ministry is doing all it can to ensure that retirements are duly done it faces challenges.

One of the challenges cited by the minister is the "increase in the number of cases of officers disputing dates of birth."

Fakudze also said they have difficulty to "stop payment of salary for officers retiring and deceased not effected on time."

Over 490 officers tested for HIV

MBABANE-Between July and September 2010, close to 500 government officers were tested for HIV.

The HIV tests were conducted through the Public Sector HIV and AIDS Coordinating Committee (PSHACC).

This is contained in the Ministry of Public Service’s second quarter budget performance report.

"HIV mobile testing was done and 493 civil servants tested for HIV, 1 086 tested for sugar diabetes and 186 initiated treatments. HIV positive cases are known but information is kept confidential," reported Minister Mtiti Fakudze.

Ministries that participated in the programme during the reporting quarter included Health, Tinkhundla Administration and Development, Agriculture and Education and Training.

He said the programme has seen an increase in participation of officers.

Fakudze also said; "About 1 359 civil servants attended motivational sessions on HIV and AIDS. The programme has seen increased numbers of civil servants attending motivational sessions."

Comments

The article lacks critical analyis of the report as value added to the journalism profession. I think the journalist needs to fill in the gap in information to educate the public (tax payers) and most importantly the public servants on the long-medium- and short-run effects of their behavior within the service as well as to the overall economy of the country. This might require interview with public sector experts, the NGO's and the civic society organizations.
Nov 3, 2010, 8:12 AM, Kabundi Kabasele (a0069226@nus.edu.sg)

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