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Worry as blacklisted workers sneak back to Rwanda public service

Friday February 24 2017
CV

Rwanda's Public Service Commission has issued an alert to government institutions after finding instances where individuals who were blacklisted from public service had found their way back to government jobs. FOTOSEARCH

The Public Service Commission has issued an alert to government institutions after finding instances where individuals who were blacklisted from public service had found their way back to government jobs, raising fears that if not arrested, service delivery could be compromised through inefficiency and possible malpractices.

Speaking to Rwanda Today, Angelina Muganza, the executive secretary of the Public Service Commission, said a communication had been sent to government institutions warning them against flouting recruitment processes and reminding them to continuously crosscheck job applications against names on the blacklist published by the Ministry of Public Service and Labour.

“We discovered that a few people had managed to break that safety net. We decided to remind public institutions that they need to crosscheck with the blacklist before hiring anybody in order to avoid such scenarios,” said Ms Muganza.

She added that on two occasions, the commission had come across names of people with government jobs yet they had had been expelled from public service and their expulsion period had not expired.

“We immediately gave our recommendations to the ministries responsible and they were instantly expelled again,” said Ms Muganza.

Growing blacklist

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Over 1,500 individuals appear on the ministry’s blacklist — which continues to grow each year — with most individuals convicted by courts of law or dismissed from employment for gross misconduct, mismanagement of public resources and causing loss to government.

Those on the list come from diverse institutions but most of them are former police officers, former employees of the Rwanda Social Security Board, as well as the water and energy utilities.

READ: 157 Rwandan civil servants convicted of corruption

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By law, they can only be reconsidered for employment after a period of seven years. At the end of the period, the affected individual can be delisted after making a formal request to the office that expelled him or her.

After the Public Service Commission’s reminder, one ministry discovered that one of its senior staff members had secured the job despite being on the blacklist.

The senior staff member had held the position for four years until his dismissal late last year when the ministry discovered his name on the list.

“I am confident that this will not turn into a habit. The blacklist is on the website; everyone knows about it, so it shouldn’t be difficult to protect public service from individuals who may try to get back in illegally,” Ms Muganza said.

E-recruitment

In January, when parliament was reviewing the stalled construction of the Rwf1 billion Bugesera District headquarters, members of the Standing Committee on Social Affairs said that such delays were partly caused by “incompetent and corrupt” individuals who unscrupulously find their way back to public employment despite being on the blacklist.

To curb this trend, the government set up e-recruitment in public service, which, according to the Ministry of Public Labour and Service, should eliminate any chances of employing blacklisted individuals.

The ministry also implemented the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System, which enables online application for jobs and any online applicant whose name appears on the blacklist will automatically be disqualified.

In order to accommodate this new initiative, the Presidential Order determining modalities for recruitment, appointment and nomination of Public Servants was amended last year and duly published this year.