Something sinister is brewing

 THERE is a procedural error in the appointment of the second acting Secretary for theEducation Department.  

Under the Public Service Management Act, all acting appointments are supposed to be made once and fulltime appointments should proceed  thereafter, unless the acting appointee resigns, retires, voluntarily vacates the post, is sick or has died.

In the light of the conditions of the Act, any second acting appointment can only be seen as an abuse of process.

I am wondering  what has happened to the first acting appointment that warranted a second one.  

With all due respect to the two high profile personalities who had their acting appointments made and revoked, politics must not make inroads into the public service machinery.

The Education Department receives K1.2 billion of the country’s budget in its purse,  the highest for any department,  and as such we definitely need a permanent appointee to manage and run the department so that there are proper  plans and direction.

With a flashback of what happened to the former secretary’s suspension and eventual revocation of his appointment, there was no investigation conducted.  

Further to that, he was not charged with any wrongdoing.  

While that is still hanging in the balance, a couple of acting appointments are made and already half the year has passed without a fulltime secretary.  

How can some of the pressing issues at the department be settled?  

One notable issue is the prime minister’s ultimatum to abolish the OBE curriculum at the end of this year.  

Has any work been done on this? 

Mind you, writing a completely new education  curriculum is not easy but certainly, it should not take a year for it to be completed. 

How about the word on the grapevine that a single  company has been contracted to the tune of K600 million under the commodity component to supply stationery?

How can the acting minister cling onto to power to run the show for so long?

Eragairmayal, Via email