By Cathy Maulidi:
Office of Ombudsman is investigating some unfair and irregular recruitments at the Office of the President and Cabinet (OPC), in the public and civil service and ministries.
The Ombudsman is acting on allegations of some individuals being sent across different government Ministries, Department and Agencies (MDAs) on different positions without following recruitment procedures.
The Ombudsman is investigating about 90 percent of the MDAs suspected to be involved in this malpractice.
Ombudsman Grace Malera confirmed the probe.
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“The Office of the Ombudsman can confirm that on 4th August, 2023 we received a complaint on alleged unfair and irregular recruitment at the Office of the President and Cabinet (OPC), Public/Civil Service and other government Ministries, Departments and Agencies.
“Following preliminary screening, the office of the Ombudsman established that the complaint has merit and prima facie raised allegations of maladministration, as such, the Office commenced Investigations into the matter,” Malera said.
Malera said her office has proceeded to serve Notice of Investigations on the Office of the President and Cabinet (OPC), and subsequently a Notice of Investigations was also served on the Department of Human Resource Management and Development (DHRMD).
She said the Office of the Ombudsman wrote all the concerned MDAs to furnish them with information and responses to the allegations raised in the complaint pertaining to their respective MDAs.
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She said most of the MDAs have responded and are cooperating with the process.
“The OPC is yet to provide responses and they asked for an extension of time within which to do, which was duly granted.
“It is the expectation of the Office of the Ombudsman that by end of November, 2023, responses will have been received from all concerned parties, on which basis the Office’s further conduct of the matter shall be determined,” she said.
Some of these ‘irregular’ recruitments emanate from appointments which were made without vacancies and without Civil Service Commission involvement which defeats access to equal opportunity as stipulated by the constitution and other employment laws in public service.
The Public Service Act indicates that it is only the President who has the power to appoint without interviews.
The law also says such appointments can only be from the level of deputy director going up.
For the rest of the positions it is the civil service commission that appoints.
When contacted, OPC spokesperson Robert Kalindiza said DHRMD is the one that is responsible for recruitments.
“We as the Office of the President and Cabinet are not directly involved in issues to do with recruitments as there is specific department with those powers,” he said.
Spokesperson for DHRMD Ken Ntonga promised to call back for a response when we contacted him. He had not called back as we went to press.
Good governance analyst Wonder Mkhutche said shortcut recruitments are threat to service delivery.
“For years, people have been complaining of poor public service delivery and one reason behind that is a poor workforce. When the civil service is full of people who were not meant to be there, we cannot expect them to be dedicated or understand their work,” Mkhutche said.
