'' They were not dismissed" CSA Boss Clarifies Alleged Removal of 40,000 Illegitimate Employees from Government's Payroll

By: Roland James

The Director General of the Civil Service Agency (CSA), Josiah Joekai, says the 40,000 civil servants who were tracked in the recent payroll audit that failed to accomplish their Personnel Action Notices (PAN) with the Agency is in line with the  law.

Appearing before the House of Representatives on Tuesday to provide clarity on the status of those 40,000 servants, the CSA Boss stressed that about 19,600 initiated the process but failed to complete, while 20,400 did not initiate nor complete the PAN process, and were included on the government payroll.

The CSA Director General, Josiah Joekai, emphasized that the audit process revealed the placement of the 40,000 names dating from 2018 to 2023 under the immediate past administration and leadership of the CSA Director General, something he said violates Chapter 35, Section 1-6 of the Human Resource Policy Manual.

He furthered that, the Civil Service Agency has not dismissed any of the 40,000 illegitimate employees, but vows to work along with spending entities to ensure that their PAN process is completed through the Employees Status Regularization Project which was recently launched.

According to the CSA boss, after completing the PAN process which determines the individual set of skills, education, and qualification, the data will suggest the number of qualified and unqualified individuals, before proceeding to drop those who could be unqualified.

"The civil servants that we identified while cleaning the payroll are in two categories; one group that initiated the Personnel Action Notices which by law, every employee in the civil service system must be complete and must be approved by the director general of the Civil Service Agency. There were 19,600 of them.The second category of civil servants includes 20,400. They are those who did not Initiate the PAN process at all, they were just placed on the payroll", the CSA Boss intoned".

Making a presentation before the Honorable House, Director Joekai, further emphasized that the Employee Status Regularization Project will be used to settle the existing discrepancies.

"Those people under the new project we have designed, the Employees Status Regularization Project, the Civil Service Agency is going to work with their respective entities to make sure that we complete the process of PAN so that we legitimize their status as employees in civil service", he pointed out.

Meanwhile, some representatives expressed their personal views about the CSA Boss's presentation in session on Tuesday, May 28, 2024.

One of those was Montserrado District Number 16 Representative, Dixon Seboe who expressed excitement in the CSA Boss deliberation for setting the record straight that the Agency has not dismissed any employee as speculated.

Representative Seboe urged the current CSA Boss in open session to work vigorously to curb the recurrence of employees getting on government payroll without due process and going through the Personnel Action Notices.

Also commenting, Frank Saah Foko of District #9. Montserrado County who is the main force behind the petitioning of the CSA Boss noted that Director Joekai exhibited good leadership by adequately addressing and rectifying the issues of alleged dismissal of employees, stating that the Liberian populace has been made to understand the status of the 40,000 shortlisted employees.