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A profound and rapid change is needed to overcome all the challenges of the civil service sector

Bywebmaster

Sep 25, 2024

BUJUMBURA, September 25th (ABP) – Parliamentarians met on Monday, September 24, 2024, in plenary session, to analyze the “Final audit report on the budget management capacity of the Ministry of Civil Service, Labor and Employment”, prepared by the Court of Auditors. The report concluded that during the 2020/2021, 2021/2022 and 2022/2023 budget years, the Court of Auditors noted irregularities in the awarding and management of public procurement, challenges related to controlling the number of staff. The report also noted gaps in the internal control system: lack of an administrative, accounting and financial procedures manual, lack of sufficient and qualified staff to carry out the internal audit effectively.

The report was followed the oral questions session with debate addressed to the Minister of Civil Service, Labor and Employment, Venuste Muyabaga. The parliamentarians noted that it is deplorable that a salary processing software, containing such sensitive data, is still under the control of foreigners (Tunisian experts), since 2010, considering that national security and integrity are threatened. The latter challenged Minister Muyabaga to repatriate this software, justifying that in the country, there are experts capable of managing the situation. In this regard, Minister Muyabaga recognized that it is a great challenge. He explained that the repatriation has started and has been entrusted to the Digital Economy Foundations Support Project (PAFEN). He said he hoped that this situation would be resolved, informing that legal procedures had been initiated. In the same vein, parliamentarians spoke about the discontent of civil service workers, regarding the treatment they consider non-compliant, within the framework of the fair wage policy. It was explicitly mentioned that a civil servant at level D7 receives better treatment than one with a Bachelor’s degree. The Minister in charge of the civil service indicated that this situation has been mentioned since July 2024, with the granting of the remaining 60% of harmonization. He acknowledged that imperfections had been noted, informing that an ad hoc committee had been set up to look into the issue and correct the errors.

During the oral question session, parliamentarians mentioned the slowness in processing files, also noting that service applicants are mistreated, disoriented by the same agents; a situation that most parliamentarians found worrying. The latter wanted to know what is being done at the level of that ministry to change the situation.

Minister Muyabaga responded that directives which instruct civil service staff to change the way they work have been issued for a week. Explicitly, he indicated that, from now on, there will be no more referral to other offices in the event of file processing. The civil servant that will be approached first will have to carry out all the steps for the processing of the file until its closure. Five days is the deadline set from the submission of the request to the closure of the file, the minister in charge of the civil service said. Adding to this range of measures, Minister Muyabaga informed that 50 toll-free numbers will be made available to the public, in order to find out about the progress of their files or express their grievances.

Responding to the question of what the ministry plans to address the challenge of staff qualification, the minister in charge of the civil service informed that capacity building sessions for civil service staff are planned. However, the minister was asked to act upstream, by offering work to those who deserve it, in accordance with their abilities and skills.

                                                                                                    View of the MPs

When the non-existence of the accounting, administrative and financial procedures manual of this ministry was mentioned, the minister was asked when it would be drawn up. In that regard, Muyabaga replied that this manual is being drawn up, promising that it will be operational in the coming days.

The parliamentarians wanted to know the approach of the ministry in the context of the decentralization of its services, to meet the requirements of digitalization and compliance with the new administrative division into 5 provinces, which would make it easier for people who waste too much money and time coming to Bujumbura.

Here, Muyabaga explained that the PAFEN project has been approached and will be the executor of the project. For him, the prerequisites have been made, training abroad has been provided to civil service personnel working in those provinces. The first deputy speaker of the National Assembly, Sabine Ntakarutimana, commended the commitment of the minister to overcome all those challenges. However, she asked him to devote a lot of efforts to them, so that they are overcome as soon as possible. For her, a radical and profound change is necessary, very quickly.

At the time when the minister in charge of the civil service informed parliamentarians of the holding of generous estates for the public administration, in October 2024, Ntakarutimana strongly asked Minister Muyabaga to take into consideration the national context by addressing the real problems that haunt the Burundian public administration and not to copy the local example to external realities. For her, it is at this time that the best solutions specific to national realities will be found.

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