STOP FIREFIGHTERS’ DOUBLE PAY - PAC

LOBAMBA – Firefighters are smiling all the way to the bank. At least according to the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), which on Tuesday discovered that not only do firefighters claim overtime, but they are also entitled to an extended duty allowance of 20 per cent of their basic salary. 

  As a result, the PAC has called upon the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development, and the Ministry of Public Service to meet and map a way forward on how the Fire and Emergency Services personnel can stop claiming both overtime and extended duty allowance.

The issue came up after the auditor general discovered that the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development had an over-expenditure of about E7.6 million in personnel costs.

Principal Secretary in the Ministry Clifford Mamba, informed the PAC that the over-expenditure was caused by the fact that the firefighters claimed both overtime and the extended duty allowance.
Mamba blamed the Civil Service Commission for this anomaly as he stated that the body had engaged new firefighters without the approval of the ministry, especially because they did not have the posts for about 168 firefighters.

Applied

Mamba said they had applied for posts at the Ministry of Public Service, but before the posts were granted the CSC, for some reason wrote to the firefighters informing them that they had been employed.

The PS said when they informed the new recruits that they were not ready to bring them on board, they (firefighters) took the court route and the latter ruled in their favour that they were already hired and therefore they should continue with their duties.

He alleged that the courts ruled that the firefighters were entitled to both the overtime and extended duty allowance. Mamba said the extended duty allowance was not unique to just the firefighters, as a majority of essential services personnel such as police and nurses were entitled to it.

“We are, however, aware that it is an anomaly that the firefighters are entitled to both overtime and extended duty allowance and we have engaged the Ministry of Public Service through the Government Negotiation Team to engage the unions so as to normalise the situation,” said Mamba.
The principal secretary added that the department had tried to implement a shift system in order to reduce the overtime payment, but they were still trying to work around it because of the court order.

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