By JAACKSON MAPAPAYI and MUKWIMA CHILALA
I WANT to know where they have taken the 280 teaching positions which have been removed from Mushindamo, Solwezi member of Parliament, Alex Katakwe, has demanded.
The MP claimed the process for recruitment of teachers is marred with irregularities among them corruption.
Mr Katakwe said in an interview that initially, his constituency was allocated with 620 slots for teachers by the government.
He however disclosed that out of the total allocation, only 340 applicants have been shortlisted.
He is now wondering why the number has reduced by 280 which is almost half.
“So now the question is, where is the 280 going? The question has arisen and given us concern to try follow what has led to that,” said Mr Katakwe.
He has alleged that the Teaching Service Commission by word instructed officers who are tasked to deal with the exercise to only shortlist 340 applicants as opposed to 620.
He wondered why the TSC decided to reduce the number when there is no official communication from Cabinet Office or the regulatory body itself.
He said as Member of Parliament, he has written to the office of the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Education, the provincial minister and permanent secretary North-Western Province respectively.
He has called upon security wings to investigate the matter which he said has a lot of irregularities.
Mr Katakwe said he has been reliably informed that the list of recruited teachers have been reduced to pave way for other people from other areas to be employed as teachers in Mushindamo which he described as unfair.
Meanwhile, former Sioma Member of Parliament Nancy Mbololwa has observed the continued issuing of statements by ministers on the recruitment of civil servants has the potential to intimidate Human Resource personnel in government.
Ms. Mbololwa’s statement comes in the wake of Southern Province Minister Cornelius Mweetwa who recently called for the recall of the list of the teachers that have been employed in the province after allegedly omitting local people.
But Ms. Mbololwa said despite being key stakeholders, politicians and other elected officials should stay away from the recruitment process as some of the comments being made border on politicising the human resource process in civil service.
Ms. Mbololwa also called for a new law that would compel job applicants to state their readiness to work in the towns from which they have applied from as it is not easy to determine who a local person may be.
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