NEC decides on advertising positions

THE three chief executive officer positions that were singled out by letter writer Emmanuel Allen Mungu which were advertised in the newspaper last Friday (Aug 14) were re-advertised as a result of directions of the Motional Executive Council (NEC).
These included position of director-general of the National Intelligence Organisation (NIO) and the managing director for the National Housing Corporation (NHC).
I confirm that Mungu was one of 46 applicants who applied for the position of the NHC managing director when the position was re-advertised for the third time on Oct 17, 2019.
These applications were received by the office of the secretary, Department of Personnel Management (DPM) on the basis that NHC did not have a fully functional board and therefore, the secretary became the proxy and the process was facilitated by the department.
The process included the assessment of all applications by the DPM-chaired pre-screening committee which comprises of deputy secretaries of the central agency departments using the merit based process.
The merits on which applicants are assessed include: relevant educational qualification, relevant work experience and exposure to managerial and leadership roles at the senior management level and possession of technical competence to perform the role.
The results of the pre-screening committee’s deliberations was then forwarded to the Public Service Commission (PSC) to complete their independent assessment before a recommendation is submitted to the NEC.
As a former senior officer of the Department of Prime Minister & NEC, I am sure Mungu is aware that DPM starts the merit-based process by assessing all applications and does not in any way make a recommendation on the final list that is presented to NEC.
Consistent with section 31a of the Public Services (Management) Act 1995 (as amended), the NEC can either select one of the three candidates recommended by the PSC for appointment or they can reject the recommendation and direct that the position is re-advertised.
Executive appointments is the prerogative of the NEC.
It is the NEC who directs that positions are re-advertised and not the DPM secretary.
Therefore, the position vacancies that were re-advertised resulted from NEC directives.
Mungu is advised that soon after taking office, the Marape/Steven government instructed that all CEO positions will be advertised when the incumbent’s term of appointment expires.
The DPM is merely complying with this instruction as well as the NEC directives.
For Mungu to state that the secretary and I are holding the government, nation and its citizens to ransom by such professional negligence or oversight is both misleading and ignorant on his part of the merit based process and the decision making processes.
In fact, the prime minister is the chairman of the NEC and signs off on all NEC decisions.
For executive appointments, DPM only implements the decisions.

Soroi Marepo Eoe, MP
Minister for Public Service