HUGE TASKS FOR NEXT PUBLIC SERVICE, LABOUR MINISTERS

MBABANE – There are two available top positions in government which were left vacant after the demise of politicians due to COVID-19-related illnesses and the successors have big shoes to fill. 

The late politicians are Minister of Public Service Christian Ntshangase and Minister of Labour and Social Security Makhosi Vilakati, who had implemented projects to better their respective ministries and had others in the pipeline. 

The late ministers, who are yet to be replaced, have seen some of the projects through while others are still pending or yet to be implemented. 

This leaves the successors of the late ministers with an assignment to either see the already implemented projects through or work on those that need to be implemented. 

Ghost

Before he passed away, Ntshangase had three major areas he was dealing with and those are ghost employees, audit of government pool and institutional houses as well as the skills audit within government employees. 

In the same month last year, this publication reported that a total of 3 194 civil servants were still not accounted for within the government system yet they appeared on the payroll. 

This was revealed by the ministry in its annual performance report for the financial year 2018/19. 

Following the findings of the report, Ntshangase instructed all principal secretaries to account for personnel serving in the ministries of government they led. 

Following this instruction, the ministry was able to account for 2 804 civil servants in 30 days. The task for the incoming minister is to ensure that the issue of ghost employees does not haunt government again as it is an unnecessary burden on the wage bill. 

On the issue of the allocation of both pool and leased government houses, which is the responsibility of the ministry, Parliament issued a motion calling upon Ntshangase, in consultation with the relevant departments, to institute an audit of the houses.

Database

The aim was to create a database of all government institutional and pool houses on a regional basis, make a list of the occupants of these houses against each house and the ministry/department for which the occupants worked and also verify if indeed the occupants of these houses were government employees, and evict those found to be occupying them illegally. 

The findings of the audit of government pool and institutional houses pointed out that there were 930 stock of government houses located in the four regions and from the total stock, nine were found to be unallocated because they were unfit for human occupation and needed major renovations. 

It was also discovered that 24 of the civil servants were not paying rent and claiming housing allowance illegally while 102 employees were underpaying rent, which resulted in government losing a lot in terms of revenue collections. 

The skills audit exercise has been recently launched by the ministry and there is nothing much to report on as far as this aspect is concerned. 

What awaits the incoming minister is to first ensure that the issue of ghost employees does not haunt government as it is losing millions due to an overwhelming wage bill. 

The minister also has a mandate, with the help of the Attorney General’s office, to continually evict illegal occupants of government houses and further charge them a penalty for their illegal occupation of government houses. 

Other projects in the ministry include consolidating commissions into a single body to rationalise government expenditure and improve efficiencies and also to engage public sector associations (PSAs) and other stakeholders to improve relations with public sector employees, Cabinet and principal secretaries to identify areas of concern. 

Another one is to prioritise implementation of Management Information Systems for recording government data, strengthen data management and improve data quality.

Meanwhile, there is also a huge task for the next individual who will be appointed to be minister of Labour and Social Security.

This is in respect to the conversion of the Eswatini National Provident Fund (ENPF) from a provident fund to a national pension fund.

The ENPF Conversion Bill was once tabled in Parliament by then Minister of Labour and Social Security, the late Winnie Magagula, and after lengthy debates around it, it was eventually withdrawn.

Debate

Vilakati attempted to revive the debate of the Bill and in May 2019, he shared that the bill was with the Labour Advisory Board (LAB), which is a tripartite structure wherein inputs are being made. 

He stated that the target was that by the end of the month (May, 2019) it should be presented to Cabinet before being tabled to Parliament. However, nothing came out of it as the Bill is yet to be re-tabled and debated again in Parliament. 

During Vilakati’s funeral on January 28, 2021, the ENPF announced through its representative that they would honour him by fast-tracking the conversion of the fund into a pension scheme, which would see every worker having pension. 

Another project which the ministry is custodian of is the introduction of public works programme: small-scale infrastructure development through labour intensive methods, link to vocational centres for reduced adverse economic impact on citizens, employment generation.

These are some of the projects that the late minister initiated and some of them remain a responsibility for the next minister to carry forward and see them through.

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