EAC Secretariat pleads for lift of freeze on hiring new staff

Flags of the East African Community (EAC) and member countries. PHOTO | FILE |  NATION MEDIA GROUP

By Zephania Ubwani

In Summary

• There are fears that the mass exit will have adverse effects on the operations of the EAC if the vacant posts in the executive organ of the regional bloc are not filled promptly.
• The recruitment of the general staff as well as professionals working for the EAC and its organs and institutions is normally done on a quota system, which ensures each of the five member countries - Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya, Burundi and Rwanda.

The East African Community (EAC) secretariat has made a plea to partner states to unanimously agree on lifting a freeze on the recruitment of new staff with the imminent mandatory retirement of 52 professionals.

There are fears that the mass exit will have adverse effects on the operations of the EAC if the vacant posts in the executive organ of the regional bloc are not filled promptly, The Citizen has been told.

The pending exit of 52 professional staff at the Secretariat from next month to November next year has caught the executives at the EAC at a crossroads as to how it is going to fill vacancies to ensure the operations of the EAC was not crippled by the “mass exit”.

A recent retreat organised in Moshi for the permanent/principal secretaries in the EAC Affairs ministries from the five partner states was told that the secretariat should be allowed to commence the recruitment process immediately to fill the positions.

“The Secretariat was tasked to develop a smooth transition plan to ensure the operations of the EAC are not adversely affected by the mass exit,” a note from discussions at the meeting made available to The Citizen said.

However, sources indicate that the moratorium on the recruitment has also affected the general staff working in the two other organs of the EAC, which are the East African Court of Justice (EACJ) and the East African Legislative Assembly (Eala) as well as nearly a dozen institutions under the EAC scattered in the region.

The four-day strategic retreat recommended that the Arusha-based Secretariat through which the expenditure budget of the entire organisation is channelled, be allowed to recruit and fill in the vacant general staff positions within the approved budget.

The recruitment of the general staff as well as professionals working for the EAC and its organs and institutions is normally done on a quota system, which ensures each of the five member countries - Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya, Burundi and Rwanda.

It emerged that professional and the general staff from South Sudan, which was recently admitted as a new member of the EAC, was put aside until the country’s ‘full admission’ was confirmed by the ratification and depositing the instruments of ratification of accession to the EAC, latest by October 1, 2016.