‘Unqualified employees hold senior public posts’

Deogratius Ndejembi, the Deputy Minister in the President's Office (Public Service Management and Good Governance) told the House that this is the reason some government officials hold senior positions in acting capacity for years without being confirmed.

He said that a recent investigation found 1,664 unqualified civil servants acting in various senior positions across the country.

The deputy minister made this affirmation when responding to Kibamba MP Issa Mtemvu who sought to know when the government will confirm civil servants acting in various positions, as this situation was derailing service delivery.

The vetting process takes a long time as the government prepares a database for those who have been verified to be confirmed, the MP furthered.

In his response, the deputy minister acknowledged this to be big challenge as employers in government institutions promote unqualified civil servants without permission from the permanent secretary as required by the law. This makes the civil servants stay on acting positions for a long time, he stated.

“We have directed employers and they are now bringing the names of those who have been acting for more than three years so that we can verify who is qualified so that they are confirmed.

“But as said in the first answer we have 1, 664 unqualified civil servants,” he specified, urging employers to promote qualified civil servants upon receiving permission from the permanent secretary.

“May I call upon employers to stop employing someone because of some reasons or just because of being a friend but promote someone who is qualified,” the deputy minister implored, saying that this will help in vetting and confirming civil servants who act for more than six months.

Ndejembi said the ministry has started gathering information for setting up a database to be used in confirming them.

In the process, around 2300 names will be listed for vetting and in the second week 2400 names will be placed for vetting again, to find qualified individuals to be promoted, he elaborated.

 After this procedure is in place, whenever someone is promoted but is unqualified, the ministry will directly post someone else to make decisions. This will help to address the problem of promoting unqualified civil servants, he added.