Civil servants cash in on elections

ABOUT 570 civil servants will be leaving their jobs to make an extra dollar during the November elections, as some of them will be attached to the Electoral Commission of Namibia (ECN), both for the registration and polling periods of the elections.

The practice is not new and has been done during previous elections. But with the current economic crisis many Government employees would like to cash in on the lucrative ECN attachment.The Namibian was alerted to the fact that some senior civil servants have lots of responsibilities and have not cleaned up the chaos in their departments but are taking leave to be attached to the ECN to cash in on the extra income at the expense of Government.On top of their salaries, civil servants will earn between N$283 and N$470 a day during the registration period and between N$508 and N$975 a day during the poling period.ECN Deputy Director of Electoral Operations Theo Mujoro said there would be 570 registration teams in the country and each team must have at least one civil servant. Civil servants are put in the teams to look after Government interests, property and vehicles. He added that the ECN wants only civil servants to drive Government cars, because they are aware of the relevant rules.He added that all civil servants must have driver’s licences. Mujoro added that civil servants will be paid at a lower rate than other election workers.He also said that the ECN cannot be held liable for officials who don’t complete their normal duties, as it is the prerogative of the individual ministries to approve which officials can be attached to the ECN.Although election work is not part of the public service’s duties, it is still funded by Government, which already pays the civil servants. Public Service Commission Chairman Eddie Amukongo does not see anything wrong with the practice because the Permanent Secretaries of the Ministries have the discretion to refuse to second a civil servant whose work is not up to date. The ECN will have a two-week registration period ending October 5, and will have 570 registration teams around the country. It will have 13 regional co-ordinators and each region will have two assistant co-ordinators. It will also have 107 constituency supervisors and 3 700 registration officials.tileni@namibian.com.na