Question NW1559 to the Minister of Justice and Correctional Services
23 June 2017 - NW1559
Hoosen, Mr MH to ask the Minister of Justice and Correctional Services
Whether there (a) is currently and/or (b) was a moratorium on the appointment of staff in his department in the past three financial years; if so, (i) what are the reasons for this and (ii) from which date has this been the case?
Reply:
(a) and (b) Yes, the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development is in the current financial year (2017/2018) not making appointments to all vacant permanent posts on its establishment, subject to the outcome of a critical post evaluation process mentioned in (i) hereunder. Since August 2016 (previous financial year - 2016/2017) the Department has not made appointments to vacant permanent posts on its establishment, save for one or two exceptions. There was no “moratorium” on the appointment of staff in the Department in the 2015/2016 and 2014/2015 financial years
(i) The reason for the moratorium is due to cuts in the budget item for compensation of employees, coupled with the additional pressures on the same budget item caused by (amongst others) increases in service benefits (e.g. housing and medical) which were above inflation; without an additional allocation to the Department to cover such increases. The Department has taken this stance in order to avoid possible over-spending on the compensation of employees budget, which is prohibited by the PFMA.
In the meantime, an internal committee has been established, by the Director General to assess the critical nature of each permanent vacant posts within the Department (with a bias towards posts at service points and core business functions); with a view to ensuring funding for that post and initiating the recruitment and selection processes for such identified critical posts.
(ii) Since August 2016.
Office of the Chief Justice
(a) and (b) No, there has not been a moratorium on the filling of posts in the past three years in Office of Chief Justice. Due to budget constraints posts for filling are prioritized according to the available Compensation of Employees (CoE) ceiling.
Department of Correctional Services:
a) No, the department does not have any moratorium.
b) No, the department did not have any moratorium in the last three years. The department however in November 2016 following the announcement of Cost Cutting measures by National Treasury re-priotized the filling of critical posts.
(i) n/a
(ii) n/a