Africa-Press – Eswatini. Government has been paying 52 suspended civil servants their full salaries for over two years now.
As a result, government, through the ministry of Public Service, set up a five-member committee to look into the issue of civil servants in the various ministries or departments currently suspended on full pay. Public Service Ministry’s Principal Secretary (PS) Sipho Tsabedze confirmed that the committee in question has already submitted its report, which he said, was still to be discussed before it can be shared in the public domain.
Reliable information gathered is that some of these suspensions allegedly relate to criminal acts committed by these officers outside the work environment, while some relate to criminal acts that are work-related.
“Yes, the committee you are asking me about has submitted its report, which is now awaiting discussions. “Unfortunately, we have not been able to deliberate on it because we are yet to gather over it. I cannot be sure when that will happen, because this depends on the availability of other members. I can confirm that we currently have 52 suspended civil servants on full pay,” Tsabedze said. The objective of setting up the committee, according to a memorandum by Tsabedze dated November 15, 2021, was to ascertain the status of these matters and further establish how these issues could be brought to finality.
Respect
“In particular, the committee is expected to establish whether, in respect of those officers facing criminal charges unrelated to work, it is possible to reinstate these officers in their positions and whether it is possible to withdraw the charges and pursue disciplinary measures in respect of those officers who committed work-related criminal acts. In carrying out its mandate, the committee will be required to peruse the affected officers’ personal files and further conduct interviews with the relevant officials on the issue of the suspended officers,” Tsabedze said.
Most of these officers were allegedly suspended in 2021 and have been receiving their pay since without reporting to work. Central Transport Administration (CTA), according to the memorandum, is leading the pack with 12 suspended officers, followed by the ministry of agriculture with seven. Also appearing in the list are: ministry of education and training (5), information, communication and technology (ICT) ministry (4), His Majesty’s Correctional Services (4), judiciary (3), ministry of Home Affairs (3) and three from the ministry of health.
The rest are ministries of public Service (1), Public Works and Transport (3), labour and Social Security (1) and that of Natural Resources and Energy (1). Notably is that all these officers were suspended between November and December 2021 for different alleged acts of misconduct.
This comes at a time when government has been on a tight budget, with most of the ministries complaining of being under budgeted, hence finding it difficult to deliver on their mandate. According to the ministry of Finance’s second quarter report submitted on December 9, 2022, the country has around 44 000 civil servants consuming a wage bill of E650 million monthly.
Confirmed
One of the suspended workers, who asked to remain anonymous, confirmed that he had been now at home for close to two years while waiting for his disciplinary matter to be finalised, “I was served with the suspension letter in December 2021 but up to now, I am waiting for action in the matter.
“It is never nice to get paid for doing nothing, especially when you love the job that you are doing. We are hoping that our trade union will assist us in this regard because some people are even finding it difficult to believe that we are still getting full pay looking at the time we have already spent sitting at home,” he said.
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