Home | News | OVER E6M SPENT ON SUSPENDED GOVT EMPLOYEES ANNUALLY

OVER E6M SPENT ON SUSPENDED GOVT EMPLOYEES ANNUALLY

16/03/2024 07:41:00 Sifiso Dlamini

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Ezulwini – Despite assurances that the issue of ghost employees has finally been addressed, government continues to spend millions of Emalangeni paying salaries to civil servants sitting at home.

According to a report compiled by the Ministry of Public Service, there are currently over 50 civil servants on suspension with full pay within the civil service. Calculations based on the suspended employees positions and grades, as per the establishment register Supporting the estimates of public expenditure for the financial year 2023/24, revealed that government spends about E6 116 084 public funds on an annual basis, paying salaries for suspended officials.

On a monthly basis, government spends about E509 673.66 on salaries for suspended employees. The figures could be higher, taking into consideration that government has paid over E4 million on salaries for the 24 junior police officers over the past two years who remain suspended after protesting about the implementation of Phase II of the salary restructuring exercise.

Some of the government employees have been on suspension since 2010 and continue to receive full pay, while at home while others were suspended in the subsequent years before the report was finalised two years ago. The suspended employees hold various positions, such as store man, cleaner, accountant, driver, fuel attendant to name a few.

The names of the suspended employees are known to the Eswatini News but will not be revealed as their cases are yet to be reviewed by the Civil Service Commission (CSC). The offences committed by the civil servants, leading to their suspension included; fraud, housebreaking and theft, stock theft, contravening the Prevention of Corruption Act (POCA), fuel theft, rape, malicious injury to property, murder and attempted murder, robbery kidnapping and assault common, contravening the provisions of the People Trafficking, People Smuggling Act of 2009, as well as theft by false pretences.

Noteworthy, a majority of the suspended government employees were from the Ministry of Public Works and Transport. Among the offences committed by the Works employees was theft of fuel, fraud and contravening the Prevention of Corruption Act of 2006.

Meanwhile, within the Ministry of Agriculture, there are currently seven civil servants who are on suspension with full pay for offences including fraud, stock theft and housebreaking and theft of government fertiliser, to name a few.

The ministry with the third highest number of suspended employees is the Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs, where officials were suspended in connection to fraud (academic qualifications), theft as well as POCA offences. During the CSC strategic plan validation workshop held at the Royal Villas yesterday morning, CSC Chairperson Simanga Mamba assured that the commission was in the process of reviewing the cases of the suspended government employees.

Mamba said the strategic plan was meant to ensure that the commission became the epitome of excellence, while improving transparency in recruitment, as well as excellent service delivery. While presenting an overview of the strategic plan, Mamba informed the present ministries principal secretaries that the commission would issue memos pertaining to the suspended civil servants in their respective ministries.

Servants

He acknowledged that the Minister of Public Service, Mabulala Maseko, tasked the commission with addressing the issue of suspended civil servants. He mentioned that there were close to 60 civil servants who were on suspension, some of whom have been suspended since 2010.

“At the Ministry of Public Works and Transport, there is a civil servant who held the position of a Road Oversee, who has been suspended since 2015 for stealing 20 bags of cement amounting to about E1 500. When you come to think of it, How much has government paid in salaries to the employee who is still at home for stealing cement worth E1 500?” quizzed Mamba.

He said the commission was currently going through the report dated June 2022, to ascertain whether it was still viable and whether the suspensions were still serving the purpose or backfiring. “I do not want to preempt setting them aside, but we will be inviting you to the commission to discuss whether there was still objectivity pertaining to the suspensions,” said Mamba.

He said should there be a need to review, it would be considered as part of the work mandated to the commission by the Constitution. He assured that the issue of suspended civil servants should be addressed in the next quarter.

Focus

He mentioned that among the key focus areas, was effecting the handling of disputes and grievances from civil servants. He said the CSC’s mandate in terms of the Constitution was to handle grievances from civil servants as well as outside civil service. “The strategy will assist us to establish a grievance dispute mechanism within,” he said.

Elaborating, Mamba said in 2021, the CSC embarked on an exercise to review all civil servants cases that were filled with the Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration Commission (CMAC) so they could be adjudicated by the commission. “That yielded positive results because some cases that would have otherwise ended up in court and being a cost to government, were resolved by the commission,” he said.

He further mentioned that in most cases, civil servants tended to run to CMAC, yet in terms of the Constitution, the commission was mandated to address the grievances from civil servants. Mamba stated that the commission has issued a circular to the Ministry of Public Service to ensure that all matters were referred to the commission for deliberation and would then be handed over to CMAC if a resolution was not met.

Grievances

“This assists us in boosting morale within the civil service, because if government employees approach the commission with grievances, they returned to work happy when the matters have been resolved,” he said.
Pertaining to ethical leadership, Mamba said this was leadership that was directed by respect for ethical beliefs and values for the dignity and rights of others. He said the commission intended to push and promote consequence leadership within the civil service.

He stated that the benefits of the strategic plan as articulated ranged from a clearly stated mission, vision, values, key focus areas covering service excellence, improvements in internal systems and processes. He further mentioned that also benefits which are; institutional capacity building, advocacy, image and reputation management, strengthening partnerships and collaboration as well as improvement in legal regulatory framework to resource mobilisation and financial sustainability.

Mamba said the expected outcome was a CSC that would be an epitome of excellence in the public service founded on integrity, professionalism, innovation, inclusivity, confidentiality, teamwork and appropriate structure as well as aligned legal and regulatory framework to fully carry its constitutional mandate.