Home Affairs Permanent Secretary Mbarak Abdulwakil addresses journalists in Dar es Salaam yesterday. Right is Director of Criminal Investigations Issaya Mngulu.
Dar es Salaam. The government has revoked the hiring of 200 newly employed Immigration Department officers.The unprecedented decision follows the recommendations of the team appointed to investigate claims of serious irregularities, including nepotism, in the process of hiring the workers.
The team found out that many of those who landed jobs with the department were close relatives of senior officials in the department. Twenty-eight of the revoked jobs were in Zanzibar.
Home Affairs Permanent Secretary Mbarak Abdulwakil said other reasons for the revocation were the hiring of overage candidates and vague advertisements inviting people to apply for the jobs.
“We will soon ask qualified Tanzanians to apply and we are calling upon all candidates who applied for the jobs when they were first advertised earlier this year to do so again,” Mr Abdulwakil said.
Mr Abdulwakil added that the government had not ruled out disciplinary measures against Immigration officials who oversaw the exercise.
The five-member team that investigated the scandal was given ten days form August 1 to complete its work.
The team concluded that many of those hired were either children or close relatives of senior Immigration officials. Some of them were hired at the expense of candidates with better qualifications.
It also found out that advertisements for the jobs were too general, and did not mention the required qualifications.
Some of those hired were beyond the age limits of 25 for constables and 30 for corporals.
On February 17, the Immigration Department advertised 200 vacancies for constables and corporals. Over 15,000 applications were received, and 1,005 candidates were shortlisted for interviews. Some 200 were successful.
Claims of nepotism emerged in social media , prompting the government to suspend the hiring and launch investigations.
The claims emerged soon after the names of the successful candidates were published.
They were due to formally join the Immigration Department this month. These were the lucky few, each of whom clinched a slot in a list of 200.
It was reported that out of the 200 new recruits who were soon advised to report to the Immigration headquarters early this month, most were related to officials in the Department or to those who had retired from the same.
The move appears to be bad news for those who were expecting to join the department but it will be lauded by applicants who were earlier axed before successfully picking the disputed 200 recruits.
Commentators were quick to note that the massive response was a clear indicator to massive unemployment and state of joblessness among the country’s youth.
The Citizen
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