Civil servants get free ride

By HELEN TARAWA
MORE than 6,000 civil servants are currently being paid for doing nothing, an official says.
Public Employees Association general-secretary Peter Togs told The National that political leaders should be blamed for changing the law (District Development Authority Act 2014) which allowed district administrations and MPs to “hire and fire” as they wished.
“When they bring their cronies, relatives, friends or whoever to work in the district administration, our public servants in the districts are displaced,” he said.
“This is because of decisions made by MPs to displace career public servants. There are two people paid to do the same job.
“The administration did not increase the number.
“It’s for political convenience.”
The association and other public sector trade unions are putting pressure on the Government to review wages and salaries which had remained the same for at least three years.
Department of Personnel Management secretary Taies Sansan explained last night that there were various reasons.
“They are unattached on the payroll for various reasons – some due to reaching retirement age, due to medical conditions, due to the selection and recruitment process in progress and some technically unattached, meaning they didn’t win any position and are waiting for their agencies to deal with them such as paying them out or attaching them to other positions,” she said.
She said district administration employees came under the provincial administration structure.
Public Service Minister Joe Sungi said he would comment later on the matter.
Togs said the law passed in 2014 gave MPs the power to hire and fire workers but in the 2020 budget debate, they were complaining that the K4bil allocated to the public service was taking up a big chunk of the national budget.
“The 2019 mitigation of the deficit resulted in the public policy to cease any wage increase in the public service,” he said.
“But what are the peripherals or constituents of public policy, humanity, economy, democracy?
“There is no consideration for humanity in that policy and is against the Industrial Organisation Act Section 68.”
“They have caused financial injury to every public servant.
“When you make a public policy, you ensure that you are within the ambit of the law.”