Government is putting a freeze on new recruitments into the public service sector effective as of January 1, 2021.

According to the Permanent Secretary of the Public Service, Nego Sisiolo, who notified all government ministries of the moratorium, says that “as one of the critical preconditions to act on the DCCGA Redirection Policy, the cabinet has decided on recruitment moratorium in the SIG- Public Service”.

Sisiolo said effectively all vacant positions are now unbudgeted for and will be deemed inactive.

Sisiolo further added that exceptional cases would be given to statutory positions, the resource and productive sectors, basic services in the education sector and the essential services that demand government’s intervention.

The Permanent Secretary also stated that the due to the moratorium in place, government ministries and agencies are asked to do “…organizational functional and job description reviews…”and existing HR capabilities to gear towards implementing the DCGA redirection policies.

Nego Sisiolo emphasized that this measure is taken to address; the unnecessary expansion of the workforce, which contribute to wastage of scarce resources, “stabilize workforce growth and payroll pressure in the medium term…”, and the opportunity to take performance audit to ensure efficiency in delivery of services.

The recruitment moratorium will be in place from January 1 2021 until further notice.

Freezing of public service recruitment is not a new undertaking, governments often place such moratorium to maximize the efficiency of the public service sector and to save costs as well.

Source: Press Release, GCU