HOPE FOR OFFICERS IN FOREIGN MISSIONS

MBABANE - Civil servants may have finally received their cost-of-living adjustment (CoLA), but some still feel hard done.

These are none other than the public servants who work in foreign missions who, for the past 10 years, have been pushing to have their terms and conditions of service improved under the infamous Chapter E. 

However, it seems like there is light at the end of the tunnel as their prayers could soon be answered.

During an appearance by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) last week, Acting Principal Secretary Jennifer Neves gave assurance that the instrument that would govern the terms of service for the aforementioned employees was ready and awaiting approval.

Welfare 

This was after the PAC decried why it had taken years to sort the matter of the welfare of the officers.

A look into the document, known as Chapter E, brings a glimmer of hope for the officers as it contains a variety of benefits, most of which they have for years not enjoyed.

The document makes it clear that such officers are entitled to foreign service allowances which shall be paid monthly in arrears and shall not be accountable nor subject to the Eswatini income tax.

“Foreign service allowances are intended to assist an officer towards meeting the additional expenses which he inevitably meets on being posted abroad, but in comparative terms, and taking into account an officer’s status as a civil servant, such allowance is not intended to provide an officer stationed abroad with a higher standard of living than he would reasonably expect to attain in Eswatini,” reads part of the document.

It is mentioned that its main purpose is to ensure that its standard of living for such officers benefits his status as an officer and representative of the Government of Eswatini. 

The terms and conditions for such allowances include that they are to be paid to officers including married ones, who are accompanied at the missions by their spouses.

“In the event of both husband and spouse being officers in the foreign service posted for duty to the same mission, the entitlement to foreign service allowances at the appropriate married rates shall be established by reference to the most senior of the two.  If they are posted to different missions, each officer shall qualify for foreign service allowances at the appropriate single rates,” it is mentioned in the document.

The document mentions that if an officer is accredited to more than one country, his entitlement to foreign service allowances shall be established at the rate of the country in which he resides. 

Allowance

 For officers who  are appointed to act in positions that do not attract acting paid allowances, the document states that they shall not be entitled to the higher rates of allowances appropriate to such grades.  

Instead, they shall continue to receive allowances appropriate to their substantive grade. 

 It is also mentioned that the rates of the allowances shall be subject for review from time to time by the government whenever other government allowances are reviewed. 

 Accommodated under the document are minors of officers, including step-children or legally adopted ones, who have reached the age of five years, but who have not passed their 21st birthdays, and are receiving fulltime education either at an approved and recognised day-school or boarding school. 

 “The allowances in terms of this Section of General Orders shall be restricted to a maximum of six entitled children in the case of head of mission, and four such children for other officers below the rank of head of mission, unless in any particular case prior authority for entitled children in excess of these numbers has been given by the principal secretary responsible for public service.  

Education 

“The maximum members of six and four entitled children respectively shall include those entitled children who are receiving their education in Eswatini as well as those who are receiving their education in the country of accreditation,” it is mentioned. 

Worth mentioning is that the document is clear that the allowances are non-pensionable and not subject to the Eswatini income tax, and shall be paid monthly in arrears. 

 The document also accommodates the education of the officers’ children as it states that, ‘An officer who maintains an entitled child in Eswatini for the purpose of attending day-school during his service abroad, shall be entitled to a guardian’s allowance and day school allowance. The rate of the allowance shall be at the approved prevailing rate per month, per entitled child, or the actual basic day-school fees whichever is the lesser’.

The allowances, according to the document, shall be non-pensionable and shall be paid monthly in arrears.

“The allowance shall be paid from the date an officer leaves Eswatini to take up his duties abroad, and shall cease on the date of return. In the case of an officer who chooses to return to Eswatini by any other mode of transport the allowance shall cease two days after he leaves his mission abroad, or on the date he arrives in Eswatini,” reads part of the document.

Also covered in the document are boarding school allowances as it is mentioned that an officer who maintains an entitled child in Eswatini for the purpose of attending a boarding school during his service abroad shall be entitled to a boarding school allowance. 

The rate of allowance, according to the document, shall be at the approved prevailing rate per annum per entitled child, or the actual basic fees for tuition and boarding whichever is the lesser.  

Other allowances mentioned in the document include one for the use of motor vehicles for duty.

It is stipulated that an officer shall be permitted to use his own motor vehicle for the performance of his official duties on the authority of a head of mission. 

“Motor vehicle allowances for such use shall be paid at the official rates authorised by the government to which the mission is accredited to when a civil servant belonging to the government uses his own car on official business. An officer claiming motor vehicle allowances for official duty running shall record and make his claim in the terms of General Orders,” it is stipulated.

 However, not all the provisions are good news for the officers.

One provision that would obviously not impress the officers is one that makes it clear that charges for the hire of formal clothing, for example, morning or evening dress, shall not be accepted against public funds.

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