Rwanda Public Service Commission in the mirror of challenges and achievements after 10 years

The National Public Service Commission celebrates a 10-year anniversary since its creation in 2008 with the Overall mission of providing independent oversight of recruitment and public service tenders in relation to grievances while at the same time ensuring that Public servants are selected and supported to act on the highest principles of fairness, transparency, good governance and integrity.

The Commission was set up 14 years after the Genocide against Tutsis in 1994.

As explained, Mrs. Kayijire Agnes, Vice President of the Council of Commissioners, “The Rwandan History shows that before the Genocide Against Tutsis to get an employment in the public institutions was based on the regionalism, Ethnocentrism and other acts which clearly demonstrate how there was no equal opportunity in public services sector.”

It was after the Genocide that the Government of the National Unity put in place policies favoring equality to ensure that all Rwandans have the same rights in all sectors of National services.

After ten years of existence, the Commission claims to have achieved important progresses.

Mrs. Kayijire said that the commission has helped public institutions to obtain qualified staff through transparency and equal opportunities for all.

It has made follow-up on the implementation of laws and other decisions taken to ensure the good management and the search for the public servants.

“We have made various studies to find out the causes and impacts of disputes in public institutions and given Guidelines to solve these problems.” Kayijire said

Apart from the above achievements, the commission has also provided final conclusions on the appeals filed by various candidates for the different public employment opportunities and finally it has done many in overseeing the public servants management and examined changes brought by the good management of the public employees for further progresses.

However on the other hand, the commission also faced the five challenges, the first of which is the corruption forms occurring during recruiting of public employees’ process, delay of the submission of examination results, hiring unskilled employees and contracting Non-qualified examiners.

Some institutions are also still reluctant to implement the Commission’s decisions, and ultimately violate laws relating to the management of human resources in public institutions whose consequences among them are cited judicial cases which result in the loss of millions of Rwandan francs that the government must pay in case it loses the judicial complaints.

Recent statistics show that the last two years the Government has paid over a billion Rwandan francs after failing on various judicial cases a big number of which are cases filed by individuals against Public institutions.

Notify the Commission where you suspect malpractices

At the press conference held on Monday, Ms. Angelina Muganza, the Executive Secretary of the Public Service Commission said that “The Commission has achieved a lot during these past ten years and we are happy for the  increasing number of candidates submitting their appeals when are not satisfied with the recruitment results”

Here, she commends the positive impact of the E-Recruitment Online Service that, she explained, “This Electronic System has solved many of the problems that we used to encounter in the recruitment process and it has amplified the transparency in the employees’ hiring.”

However Journalists highlighted their concerns about the credibility of this system noting that it cannot disassemble a 100% of malpractices of recruiters characterized by the misconducts of corruption, favoritism and nepotism which a big number of candidates prove “It has become a culture in Public service institutions”.

For Muganza “To eradicate these challenges, it is necessary that everyone plays the role.”

“We are requesting the public to notify the commission wherever they suspect these wrongdoings in the recruitment service as well as in any public Institution.”

“We have received many complaints, among you Journalists also inform us on some cases. This means that anyone can inform us and we will do whatever possible to ensure transparency in Public institutions” She adds.

Muganza asks public employees to know the laws that govern them to avoid collision between them and institutions they are entitled to serve.

“It is not understandable how a competent employee can be forced to resign. Most of the cases we receive relate to people who claim that they have been forced to resign and when we check the whole dossier we find that they have themselves written resignation letters.” She said.

“In that circumstance the commission act based on the letter.” Muganza noted

“Employees should know that a public servant doesn’t resign! Only politicians resign. Public servants should know the laws that govern them,” She concludes.