FINANCE MINISTRY HIT BY EXODUS OF STAFF

LOBAMBA – The Ministry of Finance has been hit by an exodus of highly-qualified officers who have joined among others, the Ministry of Economic Planning and Development.
This was revealed by the Principal Secretary in the ministry, Khabonina Mabuza, during their appearance before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) yesterday.

Mabuza told the PAC that she was saddened by the departure of these officers who had been trained and knew the ropes at the Finance ministry.
“However, the problem is that at the Finance ministry these officers are paid at a lower grade than in other ministries yet they write the same examination,” said Mabuza.

She said she had, on countless occasions, approached the Ministry of Public Service to upgrade the posts in order for them to be equivalent to those of their counterparts in other ministries, to no avail.
“It is very disheartening when these officers leave because they know how the ministry operates but I cannot stop them because we are all employed to be remunerated at standards which we are qualified for,” she said.
Mabuza made this revelation after she had been asked to name the committee which would work hand in hand with the PAC in order to ensure that all queries were addressed all year round instead of waiting for the PAC to actually have a sitting.

She said about three of her officers had left within a space of a month.
Manzini North MP Jan Sithole had asked Mabuza to clarify if the officers had found greener pastures, resigned or had been fired.
“You would be surprised to learn that they have all left for other government departments which remunerate them better than the Finance ministry,” Mabuza said.

She said as much as the officers took the same examinations at entry level, once they were allocated to the Finance ministry they were, for example, paid at Grade E2 yet their counterparts at other ministries were paid at Grade E4.
On another note, the PS asked motorists who knew that their vehicle registration were ready for renewal to ensure that they did not go at the very end of the quarter or month end to renew them.

She said they were still working on a system that would ensure that they paid perhaps all year round.
However, they acknowledged that they needed to work with the Ministry of Information, Communication and Technology (ICT) to ensure that their network was not always down which caused people who needed their services to sometimes wait for periods as long as an hour while the system was down.

Post your comment

Your name:

Your e-mail address:

Add your comments:

Please enter the code you see in the image:

Image:

Code: