Lengthy suspensions set bad precedent

The regular suspensions of top executives at parastatals, government agencies and offices continue to rear its ugly head. Many a time officials are suspended with full pay under the guise that keeping them in their positions could hinder investigations. Both the public and private sector has to deal with its fair share of suspensions and often times justifiably so. But some of these suspensions have turned out to be drawn-out and expensive, especially for taxpayers who have to foot the bill for the suspended official as well as that of the stand-in employee. On top of that employers seem to struggle to deal with labour disputes of this nature expeditiously, leading to drawn-out delays and expensive suspensions. We understand that there are a lot of parties involved in the investigation and disciplinary processes. But it is absurd to have someone on suspension for almost two years without any hearing; it clearly defies logic. A case in point is the suspension of Kunene chief regional officer George Kamseb about 19 months ago. Kamseb is still earning his full pay and enjoying benefits that come with the position, while the authorities seemingly don't feel the desperate urge to speed up the matter. According to the ministry of urban and rural development, a report based on investigations into various suspected irregularities at the regional council was already submitted for the council to take action. We are in no way defending the suspension of the Kunene CRO, because we are yet to see the charge sheet containing the supposed transgressions. The issue here really is simply to question the painfully slow process when it comes to suspensions of this nature, which has an impact not only on service delivery, but on government coffers that are already under massive pressure. Suspensions should be based on fairness and must be guided by effective policies and procedures, to guard against undue delays in the disciplinary process that may be caused by the employee or employer. This is clearly a governance problem and if not handled correctly it could lead to a bad precedent for future situations.