The last two years, government lost Rwf224 million through lawsuits filed against its institutions by civil servants, members of both chambers of parliament heard yesterday, prompting them to call for a review of the law governing public service to minimise litigation costs.

The loss stems from cases revolving around dismissal of permanent staff, termination of contracts and failure to pay compensation on time, which may demonstrate weaknesses in dealing with labour disputes within public institutions.

While presenting the 2017/2018 annual report, the President of the Board of Commissioners of the Public Service Commission, Francois Habiyakare, said that the Government was ordered to pay the money between July 2015 and June 2017 as a result of cases it lost to former civil servants.

From final court rulings delivered between 2015 and 2017, he said, 43 institutions were sued by 147 people in a combined 83 cases.

Government won only 30 cases, which accounts for 36 per cent of the total lawsuits.

However, Habiyakare pointed out that despite the financial loss, there was significant decline in the number of cases as well as improvement in the manner in which cases are handled.

"Institutions have also significantly improved when it comes to handling these cases in terms of their defence, follow-up, and petitioning for compensation,” he said.

Recurring issue

Habiyakare was in the same seat two years ago as legislators questioned why anomalies in handling labour disputes in public institutions persisted.

MPs have always expressed disproval of the way government handles termination of contracts, layoffs and dismissals as well as subsequent legal suits.

The legislators have proposed a review of the law governing public service in order to reduce litigation costs.

At the time, Habiyakare said that failure to observe basic human resource management laws and regulations led to loss of more than Rwf500 million in litigations involving public institutions.

At least Rwf524 million was paid in compensation to the appellants.

MPs react

Vice Speaker of Chamber of Deputies Musa Fazil Harerimana reminded his colleagues that there was need to enforce the Prime Minister’s Order regarding civil servants’ responsibilty in causing government losses.

"In 2013, the Prime Minister issued a directive saying that any civil servant that costs government any losses would be required to pay it back. We are seeing a loss of more than Rfwfw200m. There is need to look into the reinforcement of this directive,” he said.

MP Jeanne Henriette Mukabikino also reiterated the need to deal with the causes of such losses.

"This is a lot of money. This is money that can be used to construct a district health centre that can benefit thousands of Rwandans,” she said.

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