|
HARARE City Council is to undertake a human resources audit to flush out ghost workers, in an exercise modelled along the ongoing civil service audit which has sent shock waves among government employees.
Council’s Human Resources and General Purposes Committee met last Tuesday and recommended that an audit committee be set up to spearhead the exercise expected to commence next month.
The proposal came at a time when government is also conducting an audit which is understood to have unearthed several thousand ghost workers in the civil service.
The audit was instituted after concerns that Zanu PF militias were being rewarded through the civil service.
Thousands of civil servants who had deserted their jobs at the height of the economic crisis were also suspected to be still on the payroll.
The Harare council has been run by successive commissioners with Zanu PF links and there is concern that the same patronage system could have been extended to its human resources department.
“We want an audit like the one being carried out by the government whereby people bring their certificates. We want a head count of each and every employee,” Ward 17 Councillor, Warship Dumba said at a full council meeting on Thursday.
According to minutes of the Human Resources Committee tabled at the meeting, councillors heard that some workers report for duty in the morning to sign the attendance register but disappear to pursue their private work.
The committee also felt that some workers were being overpaid as their salaries did not match the work they were doing.
Councillors at the meeting also expressed concern over what they called “unbecoming and disrespectful” behaviour from some council employees, especially those from the water division which was recently handed back to council by the Zimbabwe National Water Authority.
In the report, the Human Resources Committee said it was concerned that Harare Water employees were being treated as if they were a special group.
The committee also expressed concern over the employees’ “negative attitude” towards Mayor Muchadeyi Masunda when he recently addressed them on two different occasions.
“Those people who showed disrespect to His Worship the Mayor of Harare should be disciplined for their behaviour,” Cllr Peter Moyo said.
“We cannot have employees standing up in front of a lot of people and using abusive language towards His Worship the Mayor of Harare, a man respected by the international community.”
The committee also submitted that some Harare Water union leaders allegedly pre-occupied themselves with union business during working hours without permission from the employer.
“These union members are indeed a big problem,” Cllr Casper Takura said.
“I know of one union member who has not set foot in his workplace for the past six or seven months but continues to enjoy the benefits of a good employee.
“We also remember that the Town Clerk was recently dragged from his office by one of these employees and nothing happened to the culprit.
“We are setting a bad precedent; we need to discipline these people.”
Councillors said some workers from the water department arrogantly declare that they are not council employees.
Others said disciplining the workers remained difficult because the workers’ reporting process differed from other employees as “they do their own thing and do not report to the District Officer like other employees”.
The committee recommended that the Human Resources Director take tougher steps and ensure that Harare Water employees are treated like all other employees.
However, Masunda called for tolerance, saying the handover of Harare’s water was still an ongoing exercise.
BY JENNIFER DUBE
 |
Show/Hide comments
Show/Hide comment form