Systematic incompetency

Sinoe County Senator J. Milton Teahjay has launched a stinking attack against the Civil Service Agency that is responsible for employment in government, saying the CSA leadership is beclouded with ‘systematic incompetency’.

Speaking in the chambers of the Liberian Senate on Tuesday, April 4, during the senate’s regular session, Senator Teahjay said that the administration of the Civil Service Agency is seriously underperforming grossly thus, stalling the employment of individuals being appointed by President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.

Teahjay, a stalwart of the ruling Unity Party said that eight of the 15 counties’ employees who were appointed by the president last September have not been placed on government’s payroll on grounds that authorities at the CSA have reportedly ignored the request of the President.

“I present sincere compliments and, herewith, wish to bring to the attention of plenary the level of efficiency at the Civil Service Agency, which is manifesting itself in the inability of that agency to differentiate between civil servants and political appointees. As we speak, political appointees of local government throughout the country, who have been confirmed by the Liberian Senate since September 2016, are still languishing in the corridors of the CSA with the vile justification that Personnel Action Notices, PANS, of those appointees are being processed,” he said.

According to him, the action of the CSA raises the question as to how many months does the CSA takes to place political appointees on payroll, who are not civil servants. He noted that clearly, from September 2016 to April 4, 2017 is seven months interval, which the citizens have worked for without pay due to the Civil Service inefficiency.

He narrated that the Ministry of Internal Affairs is equally frustrated by the protracted delay at the CSA in putting local government appointees on the payroll, stressing that the ministry has submitted a matrix to his office, containing dozens of names of citizens who are yet to be placed on government payroll. “This is a national phenomenon affecting all counties in the Republic.

Meanwhile, the plenary of the Liberian Senate has forwarded the communication to the committee on Internal Affairs to report to plenary after the Easter Break. When the Director General of the CSA, Madam Puchu Bernard, was asked during a public hearing in Senator Teahjay’s office, Tuesday, she said that the CSA can only put individual on the payroll when the presidential appointment letter is attached and the letter is onward sent to Finance Ministry for processing.

-Editing by Jonathan Browne