The Government has for years been fine-tuning a plan that will see the recruitment and management of public servants improve and work towards delivering more skilled workers, saving time and improving transparency.

Briefing the Senate on Thursday to answer questions related to the recruitment and management of public servants, the Minister of Public Service and Labour, Fanfan Kayirangwa Rwanyindo, said that though there were still challenges, the Government was working tirelessly to make improvements, by for instance, introducing the e-recruitment system in 2017 which she credited with having significantly reduced most of the issues in the sector.

"Government is very clear in its search for employees and it has clear job profiles and descriptions. In 2017, we started using e-recruitment to avoid human interaction and it has been instrumental in cutting down on bribery, favouritism and it has promoted fairness,” she said.

Arising issues

However, Rwanyindo said that there were still issues in the methods used to prepare job examinations, saying that it is still lacking in terms of harmonisation.

"We have made significant strides and we continue to polish the system of recruitment and management but we still have some issue including lack of electronic short listing in some areas and the challenge where some of those conducting interviewers lack the adequate skills and expertise,” she said.

Rwanyindo also pointed out that there were still budgetary constraints when it comes to institutional training programmes, lack of enough time to pursue these programmes, and the lack of an induction culture in most institutions.

Plans in pipeline

She told the senators that the Government was working on a centralised recruitment that would be used countrywide, in the process harmonising recruitment processes.

There will also be an introduction of induction programmes especially for new recruits and other people whose positions change from time to time and investment in training programmes would be improved to give those in the labour market an opportunity to grow career wise.

Job creation

Through the National Employment Program (NEP), from 2014 to 2018, every sector has two business development advisors who provide guidance on self-employment.

"A total of 75,946 people have received hands on advice. 64,554 of these have been issued loans which have, in turn, created 129,108 jobs. In the area of job creation, a total of 214,000 jobs are created every year. In 2018, a total of 206,189 jobs were created,” she said.

Senators react

Senator Jean-Nepomuscène Sindikubwabo said there is need for the labour sector to emulate what has been done in the education sector.

"When it comes to education, our children are happy about the steps that have been made in the area of setting and sitting examinations. I wish the same can be done with employment interviews,” he said.

He requested the concerned ministries to look into talk of corruption in professional licensing institutions, saying that the issue must be dealt with early enough.

Senator Jean-Damascène Ntawukuriryayo expressed his dissatisfaction over the lack of training opportunities which he said should be part of the human resource plan of every institution.

"When it comes to training, it is not an issue of small budgets. Employers, whether private sector or public, should not view training as a privilege but a necessity if they want to see improvements in service delivery,” he said.

editor@newtimesrwanda.com