GOVT RECALLS SUSPENDED CIVIL SERVANTS

MBABANE – Finally, government  has saved the taxpayer from paying civil servants millions in salaries while they sit at home.

The latest development is that most of the civil servants who were suspended, some over five years ago, have been recalled to work. Initially, there were about 53 civil servants who were suspended by government for both disciplinary and criminal cases. However, last month, the Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Public Service, Sipho Tsabedze, informed the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) that about 17 cases had been concluded and that the same number of employees had returned to work.

Tsabedze had explained that the reason why some of the cases could not be resolved was due to the fact that they had criminal elements, and therefore, it was crucial to allow the court processes to be completed. Early this year, this publication reported that about E6.1 million public funds were going down the drain annually as government continued to pay salaries for the suspended employees. The Times SUNDAY has gathered that some of the affected employees received letters informing them that they were to return to work. Confirming the latest developments was the Principal Secretary (PS) in the Ministry of Public Service Sipho Tsabedze.

Majority

The PS said, “Yes, it is true and a majority of them are back at work. However, any other issues that are pending in relation to their cases will continue being worked on”. When asked if it was all of them, the PS insisted that it was a majority of them. “Their cases will continue while they are still at work. Government came to the conclusion that it did not benefit anything from paying civil servants who were lying idle at home,” the PS said. Calculations based on the suspended employees’ positions and grades as per the Establishment Register supporting the estimates of public expenditure for the financial year 2023/24, revealed that government spent about E6 116 084 public funds on an annual basis paying salaries for suspended officials.

On a monthly basis, government spent about E509 673.66 on salaries for suspended employees.  The figures could be higher taking into consideration that government had paid over E4 million on salaries for the 24 junior police officers over the past two years who remain suspended after protesting the implementation of phase II of the salary restructuring exercise. Some of the government employees had been on suspension since 2010 and continued to receive full pay while at home, while others were suspended in the subsequent years before the report was finalised two years ago.  The suspended employees hold various positions such as store man, cleaner, accountant, driver and fuel attendant to name a few.

The offences  committed by the civil servants, leading to their suspension included fraud, housebreaking and theft, stock theft, contravening the Prevention of Corruption Act (POCA), fuel theft, rape, malicious damage  to property, murder and attempted murder, robbery kidnapping and assault common, contravening the provisions of the People Trafficking, People Smuggling Act of 2009, as well as theft by false pretenses. A majority of the suspended government employees were from the Ministry of Public Works and Transport.

Among the offences committed by the works employees was theft of fuel, fraud and contravening the prevention of Corruption Act of 2006. One of them held the position of a road overseer and had been suspended since 2015 for allegedly stealing 20 bags of cement amounting to about E1 500. Within the Ministry of Agriculture, there were seven civil servants who were on suspension with full pay for offences including fraud, stock theft and housebreaking and theft of government fertiliser to name a few. The ministry which had the third highest number of suspended employees is the Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs, where officials were suspended in connection to fraud (academic qualifications), theft, as well as POCA offences.

During a strategic plan validation workshop held at the Royal Villas in March, Civil Service Commission Chairperson Simanga Mamba, assured that the commission was in the process of reviewing the cases of the suspended government employees. Mamba said the strategic plan was meant to ensure that the commission became the epitome of excellence while improving transparency in recruitment as well as excellent service delivery.

While presenting an overview of the strategic plan, Mamba informed the present ministries’ principal secretaries that the commission would be issuing memos pertaining to the suspended civil servants in their respective ministries. He acknowledged that the Minister of Public Service, Mabulala Maseko, had tasked the commission with addressing the issue of suspended civil servants.

Mamba said the commission was currently going through the report dated June 2022, to ascertain whether it was still viable and whether the suspensions were still serving the purpose or backfiring. He said should there be a need to review, it would be considered as part of the work mandated to the commission by the Constitution. He assured that the issue of suspended civil servants should be addressed in the next quarter. He mentioned that among the key focus areas was the effecting handling of disputes and grievances from civil servants.

He said the CSC’s mandate in terms of the constitution was to handle grievances from civil servants as well as outside civil service. In 2021, the CSC embarked on an exercise to review all civil servants cases that were filled with the Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration Commission (CMAC) so they could be adjudicated by the commission. This yielded positive results as some cases would have otherwise ended up in court and being a cost to government, were resolved by the commission.

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