The Higher Education Council (HEC) has apologised for delay in providing a recruitment-related report to the National Public Service Commission. The institution’s officials were appearing on Tuesday, January 28 before the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Social Affairs responding to why the institution did not provide to the Commission a report on recruitment examinations of October 2018. It was an issue identified in the Commission’s 2018/2019 report that it presented to the Parliament in November last year. Normally, the Commission assesses recruitment reports in order to ascertain whether the exercise complied with the labour legislation in the [public sector], or whether there were injustice or malpractices, and makes recommendations accordingly. Rose Mukankomeje, Executive Director of HEC said that in September, 2019, the Commission told HEC to submit a report on the recruitment competitions within 15 days. The competitions involved five vacancies which included the in-charge of [international] cooperation based scholarships to students. On October 7, 2019, Mukankomeje said, HEC provided the status of the recruitment and annexed a letter issued by the Ministry of Public Service and Labour (MIFOTRA) on 29/7 2019 which instructed it to stop recruitment exams until further notice. The reason was that MIFOTRA was planning a general restructuring in public service. “We delayed to provide the recruitment report to the Commission as requested by the law, and we are asking forgiveness for that,” Mukankomeje said. She added that two positions including that of Legal Officer, and the Secretary to the Director of Finance and Administration received workers who were provided by the Ministry of Public Service and Labour from other public institutions as they are not technical positions. This means, only three of the three vacant places still lack staff. Though MPs members of the Committee on Social Affairs agreed with the explanations from HEC and accepted its apology, they said that laws should be obeyed so as to prevent unnecessary mistakes or malpractices in public service management.
