The current audit report has indicated that the recruitment of communication outreach officers at the Ministry of Information and Communication (MIC) has contravened Executive Order No.2.
The recruitment order, according to the report, which led to the recruitment of 12 outreach personnel, was issued by State House in April, 2018.
The order though sanctioned by government, failed to seek approval from Office of the President and costs government Le over Le396M. The MIC, the report went on, failed to justify the recruitment. The report thus recommends that the salaries paid to the recruited outreach officers be recovered from the personnel and paid back to the consolidated revenue fund. “The receipts of payment of the said sum should be forwarded to the Audit Service,” the report states.
The Minister of Information and Communication, Mohamed Rado Swarray disagrees with the claims of the audit report. Swarray told media practitioners, at a press briefing that the communication outreach officers were “properly seated.” “The ministry cleared the recruitment process with the Ministry of Finance and State House,” he revealed.
The minister, however, admitted that he did not subject the recruitment to a national competitive bidding process as required by law.“The head-hunting recruitment process was used,” Swarray added. The Minister referred to ‘head-hunting’ as a process of recruiting prospective employees working elsewhere, but possesses the relevant work experience for a particular job profile. “It is usually carried out by the HR department of a company,” the Minister emphasized.