Southern Sudan: Civil Service Almost Ready

UNCLAS KHARTOUM 000987

SIPDIS

SIPDIS
SENSITIVE

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV ECON ELAB SU
SUBJECT: Southern Sudan: Civil Service Almost Ready

REF: Khartoum 00322


1. (SBU) SUMMARY: The long awaited civil service reform
in Southern Sudan will be complete within the next few
weeks, according to the newly appointed Under Secretary
at the Ministry of Labor, Public Service, and Human
Resource Development. Under Secretary Mark Zangabeyo
told Acting Consul General Juba (A/CG) that his ministry
is serving as the human resource arm of the Government of
Southern Sudan (GoSS),and as such has been coordinating
the effort to review the qualifications of all current
government employees. He said that the civil service,
which now includes workers from both Khartoum's
Government Coordinating Council (GCC) and the SPLM's
Civil Authority of New Sudan (CANS),will be thinned
considerably. Although this will create some
unemployment problems, Zangabeyo feels it is necessary
for the functioning of the government and a vocational
skills program should help ease the transition. End
Summary.

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Making a List, Checking it Twice
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2. (SBU) Over the past several months, every ministry has
been charged with reviewing the qualifications of all its
employees from both civil services and comparing them to
the ministry's needs. Employees are judged based on
their experience, education, and past performance. The
Ministry of Labor has now collected the results and is
performing a final review. Zangabeyo says that
appointments should be announced within the next few
weeks.


3. (U) Currently, the members of the GCC are getting paid
by the Government of National Unity, while the CANS
employees are working under an incentive, benefits, and
per diem system called "consolidated pay." Once the
civil service is unified, all workers will be paid by the
GoSS.

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The GoSS HR Source
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4. (SBU) According to Zangabeyo, the Ministry of Labor is
preparing itself to be the one-stop shop for all GoSS
human resource needs, from hiring and firing to training
and labor law drafting. The ministry will also take the
lead in creating vocational training opportunities for
all Southern Sudanese.


5. (SBU) The initial focus for vocational training will
be civil service members not retained, demobilized SPLA
soldiers, and members of the diaspora returning to the
South. Zangabeyo said that demobilized SPLA troops will
be a particular priority, and that in addition to
training, there will be a program to give preferential
hiring to these veterans for all government jobs.

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Bio Note
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6. (SBU) Zangabeyo is a Zande from the Tambura area. He
led the residents of the Mboki refugee camp in the
Central African Republic from 1990-1995. After that, he
was the SPLM's chief representative for refugee issues in
Bangui. Zangabeyo served in the Ministry of Labor under
the Nimieri regime and was part of the first Southern
Sudanese government in 1972, where he helped draft the
south's original 1973 Civil Service Act.

STEINFELD