Senate orders for probe into recruiting in public institutions

The Senate has resolved that the National Public Service Commission audits all public institutions that submit recruitment reports to the commission in order to establish whether recruitment complied with legislation or not. The Senate adopted the resolution on Monday, February 10, 2020 at the Parliamentary Building in Kigali as it approved the Senatorial Standing Committee on Social affairs, Human Rights and Petitions’ assessment report of the 2018/2019 report of the National Public Service Commission. The Commission evaluated 126 reports on public service recruitment exams from 81 public institutions and inspected 35 institutions only, which is about 43 percent of the total. The entities include five ministries, eight government agencies, two higher learning institutions and 20 districts. Through the post-recruitment audit, it was realised that 21 public institutions complied with the recruitment and employee placement legislation, while 14 ignored it, the Commission said. In that regard, it assessed 177 petitions by dissatisfied candidates and found that 59 of them had valid grounds. Earlier, the Commission exposed that unjustified adding or deducting of marks to or from job candidates is a malpractice that was identified in written exams for recruitment in public institutions. This malpractice, it said, resulted in unfair treatment of candidates, with some getting jobs undeservedly, while competent ones are denied their rights to a job. Senator François Habiyakare said that it was necessary that the Commission examines more recruiting public institutions. “Since the commission analysed reported of 43 percent of the institutions and found malpractices, if it audited the remaining 57 percent, more malpractices could be identified,” he said. He indicated that if the malpractices are not identified and controlled after job examinations, it could lead to mismanagement of public service. Senator Juvenal Nkusi said that there is a need to increase the number of skilled staff for the National Public Service Commission in order to increase its capacity to perform the evaluation of recruitment reports from more public institutions. “If there are people who changed score in examinations, that is a problem for us,” he said, adding that the commission should be well equipped to ensure public service jobs go to deserving people. Senators called for those that manipulate results for prospective jobseekers in public institutions should be personally held accountable. Senate President, Augustin Iyamuremye said that for them (the commission) to exceed 60 percent of the audited institution, it is understandable that they will have had increased the capacity [to do so].”

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Senate orders for probe into recruiting in public institutions