Implement audit recommendations to improve efficiency

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THE Civil Service Audit report (2015) carried out by the Public Service Commission and presented to Parliament last week makes a number of recommendations tailored to improve efficiency in Government departments and we strongly urge authorities to implement them to reduce expenditure and improve efficiency.

The report unearthed a number of glaring irregularities in many Government departments and explained how they were bleeding the fiscus of revenue at a time when the country is faced with a tight liquidity situation. Treasury is struggling to pay civil servants and meet other obligations due to depressed revenue inflows and the shocking revelations in the report require remedial action to be taken immediately to stop the hemorrhaging of State coffers.

The public service wage bill chews about 83 percent of Government revenue and this is clearly unsustainable. The report’s recommendations could go a long way in addressing this anomaly. In the report, it is recommended that about 21,000 vacant posts in line ministries and the Office of the President and Cabinet be abolished, a development that will result in about $100 million worth of savings per annum.

“There were 20,801 vacant posts in 24 line ministries during the time of the audit,” reads the report.

“The existence of vacant posts for a long time showed that ministries were coping without the posts being filled. The abolition of vacant posts results in a saving of $99,192,744 per annum.”

Some of the ministries with a number of vacant posts include Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development (5,636), Higher and Tertiary Education, Science and Technology Development (2,480) and Primary and Secondary Education (1,229).

The Ministry of Energy and Power Development has the least number of vacant posts (32), followed by Foreign Affairs (32), while the Ministry of Tourism and Hospitality has 41 vacant posts. However, the Ministry of Health and Child Care is not among the ministries that were audited for abolition of vacant posts. The report recommended that a total of 20,801 vacant posts be abolished.

“A total of 12,392 posts was committed expenditure (a total of 5,206 relief teachers, 6,607 qualified teachers and 579 rest of the civil service).

“The approved establishment is 188,070, but the number of filled posts fluctuate when relief teachers are engaged to replace substantive teachers on various types of leave.

“In the event that any Ministry needs additional posts, it should rationalise posts within its existing establishment,” said the report.

The report also unearthed massive absenteeism at schools after auditors found more than 160 headmasters, deputy headmasters and teachers absent from their workplaces without leave. To that end, the report said there were high chances that this was prevalent in most schools which would see the State paying them for days they did not work for. In the 2015 civil service audit report, it was noted that the Government could be prejudiced of about $2,5 million per year through unsanctioned and undocumented absenteeism from workstations.

“The audit exercise established that in the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education, school heads, deputy heads and teachers were away from their stations without official leave,” said the report.

“For example, there were no leave documents to justify the absence of 48 school heads, 10 deputy heads and 106 teachers on the day of the head count.

“From Table 44 below, this trend could be prevalent throughout the year and may be practised by an estimated 11,600 teachers with an establishment of around 166,000 teachers.

“Assuming that 10 percent of teachers absent themselves at least one day per month on average, it is possible to conclude that Government could be prejudiced of about $2,449,920 per annum through unsanctioned and undocumented absenteeism from workstations.”

The report recommended that there must be 100 percent compliance with the Public Service Regulations (2000) on leave management. In another revelation, the report noted that the Government was paying teachers in Trust and private schools about $20 million annually when those institutions are supposed to meet their staff costs.

The report stressed that Government must stop using taxpayers’ money to subsidise private institutions as it emerged that it was paying 3,000 teachers in private and Trust schools. We agree with the report that Government cannot continue subsidising private and Trust schools at a time when it is struggling to capacitate its own schools.

We also note the rot cutting across different Government departments and call for swift action to be taken to arrest the slide. If implemented, the report’s recommendations could save millions of dollars which could be channelled to critical sectors of the economy.

Government should walk the talk on belt tightening by leading from the front in rationalising its workforce and implementing its results based management system to the letter.

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