Empower PSC,MPs tell gov’t

*Report pins MINAFFET, RARDA and RDB/Tourism *Govt maintains status as best employee Members of Parliament yesterday called on the government to increase the capacity of the newly formed Public Service Commission (PSC) if it is to carryout its task of recruiting on behalf of the Government. Following a 2008 report presented yesterday before the Parliament, legislators noted that the commission formed last year still lacks enough capacity to conduct its roles, calling upon the Government and concerned authorities to fast track and beef up its capacity. The lawmakers unanimously passed the report presented by the president of the commission, Bonaventure Niyibizi, and its Executive Secretary, Angelina Muganza. The MPs asked the commission to come up with a more comprehensive and speedy method to vet and recruit civil servants. Currently the process of recruiting civil servants through the commission takes approximately three months The 2008 report indicates that between May and December 2008, the commission received 3,143 applications and which 1,046 sat for interviews and only 187 passed. Out of the 187, only 145 of the total applicants managed to get the jobs they applied for. According to Muganza, the commission recruited for 33 mainstream Government institutions in its first year but it intends to increase the number of employees by contracting private consultants to source out for more recruits. “As you know we recruit for the mainstream civil service and in other cases we delegate to districts through decentralisation — for example teachers and doctors — but this does not mean that we are not involved, the commission owns the responsibility. We also hire institutions and professional consultants to help us.” Muganza said. Despite the big number of applicants, Muganza said that currently Rwanda is not facing a problem of unemployed professionals. “I would actually say that there are many job seekers; there are many people who see an advert and they apply yet they are working somewhere else, so we wouldn’t conclude that all applicants are unemployed or job seekers,” she said. The commission is charged with the task of recruiting civil servants, promotions and handling retirement benefits hand in hand with the Ministry of Labour and Public Service. According to the report, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Rwanda Agriculture Research Development Agency (RARDA) and Rwanda Development Board/ Tourism and Conservation are among the public institutions that haven’t honoured resolutions from the Commission. The institutions have not fulfilled requirements of employees such as depositing social security savings of workers and contractual obligations. It’s the second report pinning the Foreign Affairs Ministry and the Tourism office for flouting employee’s rights. MPS Speak out Senator Joseph Karemera questioned how the commission filters recruits in regard to their character which they can’t easily know during the screening, yet more qualified and well behaved candidates were dropped. In response Niyibizi noted that the panel tries as much to unearth the character before the person is approved but in most cases it happens when the person is already working. Jean Baptiste Musemakweli urged the commission to consider follow ups on recruits to know whether they are supposed to be promoted or not, or else people risk being stunted and demoralised. MP Judith Kanakuze advised the commission to come up with an awareness policy saying that Rwandans need to be sensitised about the commission and its roles because the majority of people need to be aware of its presence. “The commission is doing well, but people need to be sensitised on its objectives, there is need to emphasise gender in the statistics so that we know the difference” Kanakuze noted. Government vs Private sector Muganza refuted speculations that there has been a big shift of professional moving from the public sector to the private sector saying that the government actually pays more than the private entities. She said that there is labour liberty in Rwanda and that people have got opportunities to look for jobs and in that case they tend to shift from one employer to the other. “Since 2006, the government increased its salaries, a case in point is that a professional used to earn about Rwf 49,000 and now they are earning over Rwf 200,000 with other facilities like the medical insurances and training,” Muganza remarked. She however pointed out that are some young professionals who keep moving looking for greener pastures. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Public Service conducted a survey in 2007 and found that the government is actually paying more than private corporate companies, NGOs and enterprises, Muganza said. “The trend is that the government gives a batter pay, good conditions of work and many benefits than the private sector,” she added. “Actually the government of Rwanda is one of the best employers in the region, and this is something that has been proven and this is why we receive a big number of people applying for jobs in the public sector,” Ends

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Empower PSC,MPs tell gov’t