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{
    "id": 1379674,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1379674/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 70,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mandera West, UDM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Yusuf Adan",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Deputy Speaker. I stand to support this very important Public Service Commission (Amendment) Bill. The Public Service Commission is the most important employer in this country. It is supposed to be looked at as the best employer in the country because it is a very old institution. It has gone through a lot of ups and downs and it has been perfected for many years. Therefore, it is supposed to be the best employer in the country emulated by the private sector employers and other employers. However, as time goes, we have seen a lot of loopholes within the Public Service Commission. Notably is the number of the heads of departments in Government in acting positions; it is enormous. An acting position interferes with the performance of the heads who are in those positions. They are at the mercy of their boards because they know at some point they will be invited for an interview and it is their boards or the Public Service Commission which will interview them. So, as long as they are acting, they will not perform their duties. They will try to please their board members who will ultimately interview them. The board members can either give them the job or give it to somebody else. It is unfortunate that the acting period has been too long. I support the proposal that nobody should serve in an acting capacity for more than six months. Before the six months elapse, the person serving in an acting capacity should either be confirmed or somebody else is given the job to serve as the substantive office holder of that position so that there is efficiency within the public service. On the issue of the retirement age, I also support the amendment as proposed. Unfortunately, the reason why many public servants do not want to retire or leave work once they attain the retirement age is because getting pension money is a big problem. Public servants retire and some of them die before they get their pension. It takes too long for them to be paid their pension. Retirees are people who have been in the public service for over 30 years and are used to a certain life style. However, when all over a sudden their salaries are stopped because they have retired, they do not get their pension. The Pensions Department of this country is very corrupt. Retirees are forced to play to their corrupt ways in order to get their pension and they may not afford to pay the corruption price. As a result, many of them are left shocked and die before getting their pension. Therefore, we should come up with ways and means of ensuring that, immediately a public servant retires, he or she must get their pension within a month or two. Otherwise, delay in releasing pension money is what is causing public servants not to be happy in exiting their places of work. They prefer to stay there and request for extension. They do not mentor their juniors to take over from them so that at the point of their retirement they can say that there is nobody who is ready to take over from them and ask that they be given an extension of three or five years. They will do this just because of how the pension situation is. With those remarks, I support the Public Service Commission (Amendment) Bill. The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor"
}