MONROVIA: An opposition political party, the National Democratic Coalition (NDC) has described “threat to good governance” reports from the National Legislature claiming that a number of legislative staffers were targeted for dismissal by the House leadership.
The party said in a release that there have been several complaints from some central administration staffers at the House of Representatives against J. Marvin Cole, House’s Committee Chairperson on Rules, Order and Administration, alleging that they were illegally removed from the payroll of the House of Representatives without being accorded due process as required under the CSA guidelines.
In its statement issued in Monrovia, NDC stated that removing civil servants from the government of Liberia’s payroll involves several steps that staff at the central administration level (HOR) should indiscriminately benefit unconditionally.
The NDC release, amongst other things, outlined in summary key procedures that are essential to removing personnel protected under the CSA.
Some of the steps pointed at by the NDC include ‘Identification and Verification’ whereby the HOR should have identified staffers whose statuses needed regularization, and verification should have been done to ensure accuracy and prevent wrongful removal.
Another step, the NDC said is the processing of Personnel Action Notices (PANs) which requires personnel directors of government entities (in this case the HOR) issuing PANs for employees with irregular statuses.
PANs specify necessary actions, such as updating records or providing missing documentation, the party said, pointing to another step which is ‘Regularization Process’. This is where, according to the party, the affected staffers should have been allowed to provide the necessary information or documents (e.g., educational certificates, employment history), and the personnel director needed to review the documents and update personnel records accordingly instead.
“Biometric Identification Cards,” the Party noted is another step involving issuing biometric ID cards to ensure accurate identification and prevent ghost workers. Those cards link individuals to their payroll records.
The party said its investigations established that the processes to remove several workers at the central administration of the House of Representatives were not followed nor observed regarding the appropriate steps mentioned above, thus witnessing the discriminate action of Rep. Marvin Cole of Bong County to remove dozens of central administration staffs and replace them with cronies, partisans of the CDC, family members, and others.
“The NDC in separate communications to Speaker Koffa and the CSA Director General, is seeking their unconditional intervention to rescind the decision of Representative Marvin Cole and members of his committee until the right things are done,” the party stressed in the release signed by its Secretary General Peal Nyenkan and approved by Ciapha Saah M. Gbollie.
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