Africa-Press – Tanzania. THE government has rolled out a new system that curbs the arbitrary transfer requests from public servants, particularly those deployed to remote regions and rural areas.
Deputy Minister for State in the President’s Office (Public Service Management and Good Governance), Deus Sangu said in the National Assembly yesterday that the move aims to ensure that employees serve sufficiently in their initial postings before seeking relocation.
He said under the new Electronic Transfer System (ESS Utumishi), public servants must now complete a minimum of four years (48 months) in their current station before being eligible to apply for a transfer.
The Deputy Minister was reacting to a supplementary question from the Newala Rural Member of Parliament from (CCM), Maimuna Mtanda who asked about government plans to deal with persistent issue of early transfer requests from civil servants in remote areas.
Mr Sangu said that digital platform, accessible via the Employment Self-Service (ESS) portal, requires employees to submit their applications online.
“If an applicant does not meet the stipulated criteria, their request will be automatically rejected,” he said.
He added: “We have put a system in place for transfers. You must serve for four years before you are allowed to request a transfer. It’s a system where you fill out the form yourself on the ESS platform and if you don’t meet the criteria, the application is discarded.”
This mechanism directly addresses the past issue of public servants seeking transfers shortly after being employed, a practice that often led to staff shortages in underserved areas, he said.
The Deputy Minister earlier said in the 2023/24 financial year, the government approved the hiring of 12,015 teachers and 13,625 healthcare providers.
He said out of these, 30 teachers and 42 healthcare providers were deployed to Newala District Council to address staffing shortages in those sectors.
Earlier, Ms Mtanda asked about government plans to address the shortage of civil servants, especially teachers and healthcare providers in Newala Rural.
The Deputy Minister said the government continues to tackle these shortages. For the upcoming 2024/25 financial year, the plan is to recruit a total of 10,652 teachers and 10,449 healthcare providers.
Of these new hires, 49 teachers and 52 healthcare providers will be assigned to Newala District Council.
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