Eastern Province Permanent Secretary (PS) Eularia Syamujaye has sent back sixteen people who are alleged to have been dubiously recruited to undertake the 2010 numeration exercise by the Central Statistics Office.
Mrs. Syamujaye took the move because CSO allegedly recruited people from Lusaka instead of engaging the local people of Eastern province to carry out the exercise.
She said of the 16 that have been sent back, 11 were recruited from Lusaka while five were returned because they were recruited before the official recruitment exercise started.
She disclosed this during a meeting held with the recruits this morning.
Mrs. Syamujaye said there was no need to engage people from Lusaka when there were a lot of school leavers who could carry out the exercise in her province.
“There is no need to engage people from Lusaka because the job is simple clerical work that does not require specialized skills,” she added.
She has since warned officials from CSO that she will not tolerate a situation where local people are denied employment opportunities when they were qualify for the jobs.
Meanwhile, some of the people who were sent back are now stranded in Chipata.
They told ZANIS in an interview that they have been sleeping in a bus while waiting to take up the jobs they were offered by CSO.
The stranded people, who sought anonymity, said they did not have resources to go back to Lusaka.
They added that the jobs they have lost were supposed to be their only source of income.
They have accused the Permanent Secretary of politicizing the exercise saying the recruitment was supposed to have been done by CSO and not the provincial administration.
“She has no powers to send people back because she does not work for CSO and has no authority to choose who should be engaged in the numeration exercise,” they charged.
The numeration exercise, which was supposed to start two weeks ago in Eastern province, was delayed due to alleged malpractice in the recruitment exercise.
ZANIS
