Lately, I have been inundated with alarming cases of “irregular practices” in some institutions which, for ethical reasons, shall not be named. Several instances involve specific cases whereby I was short-listed, based on merit, but my name was arbitrarily removed by unscrupulous senior officials. The only problem they had with me was that they had an “axe to grind” with me because I was “over-qualified”.
This has led me to conclude that advertisements of posts in some institutions are normally targeted for certain identified candidates. The process is merely used as a formality as the kin and kith folks are targeted.
If you have any doubts, please look at the outcomes of senior posts for Regional Councils that were advertised during 2003 whereby non-performing officials from a certain ministry were appointed to senior positions.
Similarly, middle-management officials were appointed to senior positions, for which they are not competently qualified. No wonder the decentralization process is moving at a snail’s pace! And why do you think we are having immense problems in all 13 of our Regional Councils if you recruit people who are ruthlessly incompetent and beyond repair? (Peters Principle).
This alarming trend is not only applicable to government institutions, State-owned enterprises, but also to the private sector.There is a lot of window-dressing in the private sector. Non-white managers in some businesses do not have any inherent powers to make decisions, as everything is referred to corporate Head Offices.
The crux of the matter is that the recruitment process may appear to be transparent, but it is too corrupt, inefficient and a big joke.
To rectify the anomaly, we need to introduce competence-based examinations whereby potential candidates should not only undergo interviews but should also write entry examinations to qualify for posts – the same way progressive countries recruit competent candidates – otherwise we shall continue to appoint people (who were under-performing in their former jobs) for senior posts that are overwhelming to them as is now the case.
Josephat Sinvula
Oshana