REVEALED: E65M FOR JUNIOR OFFICERS’ PHASE II, APPEALS

MANZINI - In what could be termed as good music to the ears of junior members of the State security organs, there is a budget to cater for their Phase II salary restructuring.

In fact, government had set aside E65 million for appeals. Initially, this money was presumed as if it was for the pending 2016 civil servants salary review appeals, but it has since come to the fore that it will also cater for other issues, including the implementation of the Phase II of the restructuring exercise of 2014 for the junior officers. In essence, the E65 million will cater for both Phase II of the security forces restructuring exercise of 2014 and appeals for the 2016 salary review. This (Phase II) is the restructuring exercise for the three security forces of the country, which government, through the Ministry of Public Service, introduced by issuing Circular No.2 of 2014, which outlined the format that the restructuring exercise would take. The three State security organs are; Umbutfo Eswatini Defence Force (UEDF), Royal Eswatini Police Service (REPS) and His Majesty’s Correctional Services (HMCS).

restructuring

The restructuring exercise was supposed to be in two phases; with the senior officers being the first in line and then followed by the juniors. The first phase was implemented after the Circular was issued, but eight years later, the junior officers are still waiting for the implementation of the second phase, which they had been complaining about in various structures.
Following their appeals to various structures over the years, the junior officers recently said they hoped that  the employer (government) would implement the Phase II after the statement made by His Majesty King Mswati III, who is the Commander-In-Chief of the army, National Commissioner-In-Chief of the police service and Commissioner General-In-Chief of the correctional services (HMCS). During the celebration of the Army Day, Correctional Services Day and Police Day, the King spoke about the welfare of the security forces personnel.  

He emphasised on the matter during the Police Day celebration on August 5, 2022, where he said; “Assurance of support; we are aware of the many issues where support is required to make your work as a police service more seamless and efficient. These cover general welfare and appropriate working equipment. The issues are receiving the necessary attention and the required support will be provided.” As this publication was probing the junior officers’ Phase II issue, it gathered that the E65 million which had been all along reported to have been set aside for the 2016 salary review appeals, would also cater for the implementation of the security forces Phase II of the restructuring exercise of 2014.

developments

After learning about these developments, this publication engaged the Minister of Finance, Neal Rijkenberg, and he was asked how much had government allocated towards addressing the issue of Phase II. In his response, the minister said: “We have E65 million in this year’s budget for what we call the appeals. There are issues of 2014 (State security organs restructuring exercise’s Phase II) and 2016 salary review appeals. The amount in the budget for the appeals is there to address all these discrepancies.” This publication recapped with the minister by verifying if this was the same E65 million which government had set aside for salary review appeals for 2016. It was clarified that the question emanated from the fact that the restructuring exercise for the security forces was introduced in 2014.

In response, the minister maintained that the issue of Phase II of the security forces’ restructuring exercise was catered for in this year’s budget. He emphasised that the E65 million was for all appeals which were sent to government. On the other hand, he said the responsibility of implementing the aforesaid Phase II lied with the Ministry of Public Service. Meanwhile, the Principal Secretary (PS) in the Ministry of Public Service, Sipho Tsabedze, said all appeals were handled by the ministry, including those of security forces. However, he asked not comment much about the matter as negotiations were still ongoing at the Joint Negotiation Forum (JNF). He said the outcome of the negotiations would be revealed in due course. It is worth noting that previously, government had set aside a sum of E85 million to reimburse civil servants who had raised appeals, including those for the 2016 salary review exercise. However, later on, government informed the public sector unions (PSUs) that the E85 million was channelled towards the fight against COVID-19. In fact, it said the money was used on COVID-19-related needs.

Post your comment

Your name:

Your e-mail address:

Add your comments:

Please enter the code you see in the image:

Image:

Code: