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NEHAWU says the expose of bursary allocation in Parliament by this week’s Sunday papers confirms the union’s suspicion that some of the senior managers Parliament has been hiring are not qualified for the positions they have been appointed in. Worse they have been hired through a dubious headhunting process.

The trade union further believes management’s action of dishing out bursaries among themselves, at the expense of low-ranking officials, seeks to help these incongruously qualified managers to obtain the requisite qualifications that they ought to have had prior being recruited so that their appointments can be justified when the Auditor General or any watchdog probes their qualifications.

How does one explain appointing a Divisional Manager on a R1.6 million salary, but that person does not have a Master's Degree – a prerequisite of the job they have been appointed in? Management’s claim that some of these managers were headhunted is an insult to many workers who have Master's Degrees but were not considered for these positions.  There is no way a Divisional manager can be hired without a Master's Degree, unless they are friends with someone in the higher echelons of the institution. Why head hunt individuals who do not possess required qualifications? Parliament has employees who have the requisite managerial experience and postgraduate qualifications, but have been overlooked for questionable candidates.

Unfortunately, the current Recognition Agreement between NEHAWU and Parliament prohibits the union from partaking in the recruitment processes of senior management. Thus; the union is unable to pickup these irregularities when they occur. Therefore, the only hope for the trade union in this situation rests with the Joint Committee on the Financial Management of Parliament – a committee which oversees the legislature’s affairs. NEHAWU believes this committee should probe these appointments as a matter of urgency and request adverts of divisional manager positions and contrast them with each divisional manager’s curriculum vitae and qualifications to see whether there have been no irregularities in these appointments.

Further, the union has a strong belief that some of the managers that have been recently hired were not properly vetted because there are reports indicating that some were fired by their previous employers for serious misconducts. Some of these managers’ information is available by simply going on Google or visit the CCMA website. As to why Parliament ignored these glaring facts remains a mystery to the union. The immediate guess is that the Secretary to Parliament deliberately hired individuals with a cloud over their heads in order for him to get them into doing whatever he wants because they will be beholden to him.

Moreover, we refute claims that no internal candidate was suitable enough to occupy the recently filled Section and Division manager positions.  Instead, NEHAWU views this as some kind of a capture of Parliament administration. Capture by whom, the jury is still out on that.

Issued by Parliament Branch of NEHAWU