Kigali,Rwanda- The Ministry of Labour and Public Service Commission have succumbed to Prime Minister Habumuremyi pressure and reinstated his son , one Nsengiyumva René du Bois and eight other legal drafters employed by the Rwanda Law Reform Commission.
The nine technical staff had petitioned the Public Service Commission, challenging their dismissal by the CEO John Gara, which they say is illegal.
Now the nine law drafters, are going nowhere since, Labour Minister Anastase Murekezi has reversed the decision to fire them fearing pressure from the PM.
In the petition, the legal experts said they were they were subjected to a “special exam”, which they said, was not done according to the law.
Nine employees had been laid off because of one person
A source told GLV that a smoldering feud between the PM and John Gara who earlier fired John Gara as the boss of Rwanda Development Board [RDB], is coming to the surface. Close sources in the Rwanda Law Reform Commission say John Gara who works 3 hours a day, was shocked to learn that Nsengiyumva Rene du Bois who’s Prime Minister’s son is actually in the same commission as a legal drafter.
Working on fear of his daily business being reported to Prime Minister by his son Nsengiyumva, Gara thought of well on plan to layoff all nine staff and declaring them incompetent.
The legal experts say the institution chairperson, John Gara, illegally submitted them to a hard exam which they couldn’t pass, while they were legally employed after passing the exam set by the Public Service Commission.
“We learnt about the exam on May 20, while we were to sit it the following day, yet the law states that one is given three working days to prepare for an exam,” reads the petition.
All of them failed, according to the results that were released on June 5, thirteen days after sitting the exam.
On Friday, May 7, the staff asked the Ministry of Public Service to nullify the results of the exam, which they said was illegal.
To defend themselves, they wrote that, “there is no law stating an exam for staff whose position was upgraded, their job profile did not change for them to be subjected to an exam, the exam was not aimed at assessing them, but only to sieve them out.”
Public service says no breach of any employment regulation
A source from Public Service Commission which had received the petition told Great Lakes Voice that John Gara, had observed all regulation thus nine employees had to go home.
On Monday 08, July 2013, the meeting was convened in the Ministry of Labour, chaired by the Minister to react on PM’s pressure. The head of Public Service Commission is also said to have succumbed to the pressure from the PM to reinstate his son. In the same Meeting, Permanent Secretary of Labour Ministry reportedly complained of PM’s strident calls.
However, the meeting decided to succumb to PM’s pressure to keep the Nine staff as public civil servants.
Source:GLV
